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WILLIAMS COLLEGE AND 
FOREIGN MISSIONS 




THE HAYSTACK MONUMENT 



WILLIAMS COLLEGE AND 
FOREIGN MISSIONS 



Biographical Sketches of Williams College Men 

Who Have Rendered Special Service 

to*the^Cause of Foreign 

Missions 



BY 

JOHN H HEWITT 




THE PILGRIM PRESS 
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 



Copyright 1914 
By LUTHER H. CARV 



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3T0N 
THE PILGRIM PRESS 

JAN 12 1915 
©CI.A393234 



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I 



TO THE 

ALUMNI AND UNDERGRADUATES 
OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE 

THIS RECORD OF LIVES NOBLY LIVED 
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 



PREFACE 

Of the 127 persons whose biographies are given in 
this volume, nearly all served as missionaries in foreign 
fields; a few being sent under appointment of the 
American Board, in the earlier years of the last century, 
to labor among the American Indians. The whole list 
includes the names of three persons who rendered 
efficient and distinguished services to the cause of 
foreign missions in the important offices they held under 
the American or Presbyterian Board. It also properly 
came within the scope of the work to include sketches of 
all of the Men of the Haystack and of all of the first 
signers of the constitution of the first Missionary So- 
ciety that was formed in America, although some mem- 
bers of these two groups did not themselves become 
missionaries. It has not been the purpose to treat of 
home missions, although Williams College sustains an 
important relation to that field also. 

The completion of 100 years since Gordon Hall be- 
gan his work in India makes the present a fitting time 
in which to commemorate the lives of the heroic men 
who have done so much to introduce Christian civiliza- 
tion into heathen lands and have given to Williams 
College its chiefest distinction. It is hoped that, for a 
further perpetuation of their memory, a bronze tablet 
bearing their names may some day be placed in one of 
the halls of the College. 

The movement out of which sprang the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was one 
of a series of important events which occurred about 
the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nine- 
teenth century. The establishment of American Inde- 

[ vii ] 



Preface 

pendence seems to have stimulated the thoughts of men 
and, among other things, awakened a desire to provide 
for the higher education of youth. At this period came 
the founding, in close succession, of Williams, Union, 
Bowdoin, and Middlebuiy Colleges. When French 
scepticism and French infidelity, which had come in 
with the Revolution, pervaded these, and other older 
colleges, there occurred what Guizot says took place at 
the Reformation in the sixteenth century, "an insurrec- 
tion of the human mind." In answer to the prayers of 
pious souls, who yearned for better things, there came 
in the churches and colleges, revivals of religion. In 
these religious movements, the Men of the Haystack 
were at the same time subjects and agents. Just as at 
the beginning of the eighteenth century at Oxford there 
rested upon John and Charles Wesley an inspiration 
which led to the formation of a new sect of Christians 
now numbered by millions, so at the beginning of the 
nineteenth century there began with Mills and his asso- 
ciates, a movement which has sent missionaries into 
every part of the world. It was the story over again of 
"'the endowment of the sense of personal power." The 
simple faith of Mills as expressed in his declaration, 
"We can do it if we will," was the grain of mustard seed 
which has become a tree putting forth branches. In 
lands where the early missionaries labored for years 
before welcoming a convert, the American Board alone 
has 85,000 communicants, 615 missionaries, 20 colleges, 
and 1.5 theological seminaries, besides numerous indus- 
trial and special training schools. Such are some of the 
results of rendering obedience to the Lord's great com- 
mand. It must not be forgotten that obedience to this 
command has ever called for not only strong faith and 
burning zeal, but for brave hearts and lofty heroism. 
se certainly have been the marked traits of the mis- 
sionaries whose biographies are given in this volume. It 

[ viii 1 



Preface 

was written in praise of the Pilgrims, that, after that 
first terrific winter in w r hich nearly half their number 
died and then came famine, when in April the May- 
flower sailed for England, not one Pilgrim was found to 
go. It may he recorded in honor of these missionaries 
that in no instance did one retire from his field of labor 
but with reluctance, and then for the most imperative 
reasons. Had they recorded the experience of their 
own lives, they could probably have adopted the w r ords 
once written by a missionary graduate of another col- 
lege: "And if I have suffered all that missionaries do 
in ordinary missionary work, I can cheerfully say that I 
have suffered far less than I anticipated, and enjoyed 
a hundred fold more than I expected. Every promise 
of God has been abundantly fulfilled to me, and I would 
not to-day, for time or eternity, change situations with 
my most gifted classmates." With the manifestation 
of such a spirit on the part of its agents, John Foster 
might well style the missionary enterprise "The Glory 
of the Age." 

In the preparation of these sketches, it has been the 
purpose to give not only some account of the work done 
by each person in the mission fields, but also something 
of his ancestry and something of the college record. 
This plan has called for a large amount of correspond- 
ence, as well as for the consultation of much printed 
material. To the many friends who have so patiently 
and generously responded to his inquiries, the author 
would here express his grateful acknowledgments. 
Mention is made in the text of the names of some who 
have written letters in appreciation of their missionary 
classmates. Special mention may be made here of 
President Franklin Carter, who prepared the sketch of 
Dr. Mark Hopkins. 

In a work of this kind, w r hich must of necessity par- 
take more or less of the nature of a compilation from 

[ix] 



Preface 

accessible sources, originality could hardly be expected. 
Three or four of the sketches might be regarded as little 
more than abridgments of biographies that were already 
in circulation. The author, however, is confident that 
not only by the consultation of original sources as found 
in books and imprinted material, but by correspondence 
with the living missionaries and the relatives of the de- 
ceased, he has obtained much material that has not 
hitherto been published. 

A list of the books most frequently consulted is 
given at the end of the volume. 

Having to deal often with data that were conflict- 
ing, the author hardly expects that errors will not be 
found in the use of such data; if, however, as has been 
said, the chief end of biography is to embalm virtue and 
perpetuate usefulness, he hopes that he has not failed 
to give a fairly accurate impression of the lives and 
characters of those about whom he has written. 

It may be stated that in regard to the spelling of 
names of places in mission lands, in respect to which 
there is still great variety of usage, the attempt has 
been made to follow the spelling adopted by the various 
Boards of Missions, or by the missionaries themselves. 

The author would here mention his indebtedness to 
the editors and publishers of the Missionary Herald, to 
the Foreign Missionary Library of the Presbyterian 
Board, and to Fleming H. Revell Company for per- 
mission to use certain illustrations; and to the officers of 
the American Board for the privilege of consulting the 
records of the Board. Finally, grateful acknowledg- 
ments are due Jonathan Warner, Esq., of the class of 
1889, who has given a new illustration of his devotion to 
the college by his generosity in making possible the 
publication of this volume. J. H. H. 

WlLLIAMSTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS, 

November 2J,, 191],. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

The Haystack Monument ..... Frontispiece" 

FACING 
PAGE 

The Ordination of the First American Foreign Mission- 
aries . . . . . . . . . 12 "' 

Where Gordon Hall Died ....... 22 

Bronze Tablet in the Hume Memorial Church, Bombay 22 
Williams College — East College at the Right. From an 

Old Print 28' 

Three of the Men of the Haystack: 

James Richards, Francis LeBaron Robbins, Harvey 
Loomis . . . . . . . . .56 

Jonas King . . . . . . . . . 82 v 

Mark Hopkins 116 / 

Edward Dorr Griffin ........ 134 

Joshua Edwards Ford ........ 162' 

Simeon Howard Calhoun ....... 162 

Jerre Lorenzo Lyons ........ 162 

Pioneers in Missions to the Indians: 

Samuel Parker, Cushing Eells, Alfred Wright . . 198 

Greylock .......... 300 

Representatives of College Classes of the Period 1825- 
1860: 

Henry Albert Schauffler, William Tracy. Samuel 
Hutchings, Charles McEwen Hyde, Nathan Brown, 
David Coit Seudder, Arthur Mitchell, James Herrick, 
Stephen Clapp Pixley ...... 348 

New Theological Hall — Pasumalai ..... 400 1 

Missionaries now Living (1914) Whose Terms of Service 
in Each Case Exceed Forty Years: 

George Cook Raynolds, Alpheus Newell Andrus, 
Chauncey Goodrich, Henry Thomas Perry, Charles 
Chapin Tracy, George Thomas Washburn . . . 482" 

Thompson Memorial Chapel ...... 534' 

Boon-Itt and Boon-Itt Memorial ..... 610 



WILLIAMS COLLEGE AND 
FOREIGN MISSIONS 



Missions are the grandest work in the world, and the mission- 
aries are the heroes of our times. — Endicott Peabody. 

Can we dream of anything nobler and finer than this divine com- 
mission which our Lord gave to his church? Is there any exploit 
of chivalry, any glory of military achievement, any attainment of 
scholarship, any service of culture, even any height or depth of 
patriotic or humanitarian sacrifice, which can compare in simple 
beauty, grandeur, and worth with this superb ministry, in God's 
name, and at Christ's command, to the soul life of humanity? 

— James S. Dennis. 

Though you and I are very little beings, we must not rest satis- 
fied till we have made our influence extend to the remotest corner 
of this ruined world. — Samuel J. Mills. 

No, I must not settle in any parish in Christendom. Others will 
be left whose health or pre- engagements require them to stay at 
home; but I can deep on the ground, can endure hunger and hard- 
ships; God calls me to the heathen; woe to me, if I preach not the 
gospel to the heathen! — Gordon Hall. 

We may not claim that the foreign missionary spirit in our Amer- 
ican churches had its first development here. The proof is ample 
that it had not. But so far as my own researches have gone, the 
first Personal Consecrations to the work of effecting missions 
among foreign heathen nations were here. Here the Holy Ghost 
made the first visible separation of men in this country for the for- 
eign work whereto he had called them. The first observable rill of 
the stream of American missionaries which has gone on swelling 
until now, issued just on this spot. — Rufus Anderson. 



WILLIAMS COLLEGE 

AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 



CLASS OF 1806 

Samuel Parker, the fifth child of his parents, was 
born April 23, 1779, in Ashfield, Massachusetts, to 
which place the parents had removed from Yarmouth 
in 1776. He was sprung from Puritan ancestors who 
were noted for their piety. The father was a farmer 
by occupation, and in Ashfield tilled what was described 
as a "rough, rocky, mountain farm." In 1798 the son 
began his preparation for college with Rev. Joseph 
Strong (Yale 1749), of Williamsburg, Massachusetts, 
but owing to ill health, his studies were interrupted and 
were not resumed till 1801 when, in his twenty-second 
year, he began study with Dr. Smith of Ashfield, with 
whom he continued till 1803, when he entered college as 
a Sophomore. In college he was a member of the Philo- 
technian Society. Among his college mates were Gordon 
Hall, Samuel J. Mills, and James Richards. He evi- 
dently took a good rank as a scholar, for he had an Ora- 
tion as a Commencement appointment, and appeared 
twice on the Commencement program, once with an ora- 
tion the subject of which was: "On the Inconsistency 
and Folly of Scepticism," and once in a dialogue on 
"Henry VIII, Sir Thomas More, Etc.," the other par- 
ticipants being Urban Hitchcock, Aaron King, and 
Abner Phelps. 

After graduation he taught for a year in the Acad- 
emy at Brattleboro, Vermont. In the fall of 1807, he 
commenced the study of theology with Rev. Dr. The- 

[1] 



Williams College and Missions 

ophilus Packard (Dartmouth 1796), of Shelburne, 
Massachusetts, and in the following year (1808), he 
was licensed to preach by the Northern Association of 
Hampshire County, since known as the Franklin Asso- 
ciation. Soon afterwards he accepted an application to 
go to Steuben County, New York, and Northern Penn- 
sylvania, in which fields he spent several months. He 
then entered the Senior class at Andover Theological 
Seminary, where he was graduated in 1810 with the first 
class of that institution. Among his classmates in the 
seminary were Adoniram Judson and Samuel Nott, the 
missionaries, and Richard Salter Storrs (Williams 
1807). Immediately after graduating, he was sent by 
the Massachusetts Missionary Society to Middle and 
Southern New York, laboring first from Cherry Valley 
to near Buffalo, and then going farther south, establish- 
ing in his tours many new churches. He was then called 
as pastor to Danby, New York, where he was ordained 
December 24, 1812, the ordination services being held in 
a barn, the Rev. Hezekiah North Woodruff (Yale 
1784), of Aurora, preaching the sermon. At the close 
of his pastorate in Danby in 1826, he became financial 
agent of Auburn Theological Seminary and canvassed 
for funds in New England, where he collected several 
thousand dollars. From 1828 to May, 1831, he is said 
to have held pastorates in Apulia and Fabius, New 
York, enjoying in the former place a great revival. 
From July 11, 1832, to May 23, 1833, he was pastor of 
the Congregational Church in Middlefield, Massachu- 
setts. Leaving this place on account of the ill health of 
his wife, he removed to Ithaca, New York, which he 
henceforth made his home. 

In 1835 began a period of service which, though 
brief, was most important and connected his name with 
the work of the American Board of Commissioners for 
Foreign Missions. In that year, under engagement by 

[2] 



Biographical Sketches 

the Board, he started on an exploring tour among the 
Indian tribes near and beyond the Rocky Mountains, 
the object of the tour being to ascertain as definitely as 
possible the number and situation of the Indians in those 
regions and in what manner the gospel could be most 
quickly and effectively introduced among them. He 
was absent on this tour nearly two years, returning in 
the spring of 1837 by the way of the Sandwich Islands. 
On his return he published an account of his journey 
in a volume of some 370 pages, which reached a third 
edition and which is still entertaining and illuminating 
reading. The journey, of course, was full of hazard 
and one calling for great endurance. In a letter to a 
friend, Mr. Parker wrote: "I crossed the continent by 
land, explored various parts of the Oregon country, 
from the head waters of the Columbia River to the Pa- 
cific Ocean. I lived on game, having no bread or sub- 
stitute for bread, about ^ve months ; slept on the ground 
about seven months ; several times I was in such dangers 
that I did not expect to live from one five minutes to 
another, yet I was not conscious at any time of having 
any regret for having engaged in the enterprise. I 
found the Indians friendly, and anxious to learn the 
way to be saved." 

The route pursued by Mr. Parker is given as follows 
in the Annual Report of the Board for 1837: "Proceed- 
ing up the Missouri River, from Liberty, a frontier 
town in the State of Missouri, to Council Bluffs, 350 
miles; from Bellevue, near Council Bluffs, to the Black 
Hills, 720 ; from the Black Hills to the Rendezvous on 
Green River, a branch of the Colorado which empties 
into the Gulf of California, 360; thence to Fort Walla 
Walla on the Columbia River, 600 ; thence to Port Van- 
couver, 200; and thence to the Pacific Ocean, 100; mak- 
ing the whole distance from the western boundary of 
the State of Missouri to the Pacific, on the route trav- 

[3] 



Williams College and Missions 

died by Mr. Parker, and estimated as accurately as he 
was able by the common rate of travelling, to be 2320 
miles." Some years subsequent to this journey, Mr. 
Parker claimed that he was the first person who ever 
mentioned the possibility of a railroad through the 
Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. Mr. Parker was ac- 
companied in his journey as far as Green River by Dr. 
Marcus Whitman. At that point, after conference with 
the Flat Heads and Nez Perces, who were very desir- 
ous to receive Christian instruction, it was decided that 
Dr. Whitman should return and procure associates pre- 
paratory to entering and establishing themselves as mis- 
sionaries in that field the coming spring, while Mr. 
Parker should proceed with an escort of Flat Heads 
northwesterly to the waters of the Oregon. The rest 
of the journey to the Pacific was accomplished with 
safety and this whole tour of exploration proved most 
successful and satisfactory. From traders and per- 
sonal investigation Mr. Parker was enabled to locate 
many tribes of Indians and to give a fairly accurate es- 
timate of their numbers. He was everywhere received 
in a most friendly way by the Indians whom he met, all 
of whom he found eagerly desirous of being taught the 
way to salvation. Through an interpreter he was en- 
abled everywhere to instruct them in many of the prin- 
ciples of the Christian religion, and it was related at 
the time of the death of Mr. Parker that the Indians 
of Oregon and Washington still observed family wor- 
ship and the Sabbath, as he had taught them, though 
for thirty years they had been without teacher or pas- 
tor. Mr. Parker received many courtesies from the 
American Fur Company and the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany, in whose caravans he travelled much of the way 
over the mountains, and always without expense to 
himself. 

Having accomplished the object of his mission, on 

[4] 



Biographical Sketches 

the 14th of April, 1836, he started on his return over- 
land to the United States, and proceeded eastward as 
far as the country of the Nez Perces; but not finding 
there any company with whom to travel through the 
inhospitable regions, he returned to Fort Walla Walla 
and Vancouver. Having been offered by the Hudson's 
Bay Company a gratuitous passage in one of their 
ships to the Sandwich Islands, he left Fort George on 
June 28 in the barque Columbia, reaching Oahu sixteen 
days later. Here he was most cordially welcomed by 
Rev. Hiram Bingham and the other missionaries, as 
well as by the natives. In the five months during which 
he had to remain there before getting passage to the 
States, he made a study of the Islands and people, and 
of the missionary work that was being done there. On 
December 17 he embarked on the whaling vessel Phoe- 
nix, Captain Allyn, for New London, which they 
reached after a voyage of five months on May 18, 1837. 
On May 23, he reached his home in Ithaca, having been 
gone two years and two months, and accomplished a 
journey of 28,000 miles. The Report of the Board for 
that year concerning this mission closes with these 
words concerning Mr. Parker: "Having accomplished 
the object for which his temporary appointment was 
made, in which he has shown a persevering devotedness 
to his work, highly commendable, his connection with 
the Board has ceased." The title which Mr. Parker 
gave to the volume containing his report shows that 
while studying the conditions of the tribes of Indians, 
he also made investigations in various departments of 
science, in each of which he writes with intelligence and 
great interest. The title of the volume is : "Journal of 
an Exploring Tour beyond the Rocky Mountains, un- 
der the direction of the A. B. C. F. M. in the years 
1835, '36 and '37, containing a Description of the Geog- 
raphy, Geology, Climate, Productions of the Country, 

[5] 



Williams College and Missions 

and the Numbers, Manners, and Customs of the Na- 
tives; with a Map of Oregon Territory." 

After his return from his tour, he labored in behalf 
of the Bible Society, and preached in various places. In 
December, 1847, while supplying temporarily the pul- 
pit of the Presbyterian Church in Volney, New York, 
he was stricken with paralysis. After that he did but 
little active ministerial duty, though he supplied various 
churches temporarily. He died at Ithaca, March 24, 
1866. 

Rev. Calvin Durfee, D.D., wrote of him: "He was 
in character a bold, decided man, full of energy, doing 
with his might whatever he undertook. He was devot- 
edly pious, observing the strictest duties of prayer 
and Bible reading till the last. His great work 
was the gathering of the germs of churches in 
Middle and Western New York. He has often said 
he believed he was the means, under God, of estab- 
lishing, directly or indirectly, over one hundred 
churches." 

Mr. Parker was twice married. Soon after his set- 
tlement, in 1812, in Danby, he was married to Miss H. 
Sears of Ashfield, Massachusetts, who died the next 
spring of consumption. In 1815 he was married again 
to Miss Sarah Lord, of Danby, by whom he had three 
children, of whom two became ministers, viz., Rev. 
Samuel Parker, Jr., and Rev. Henry W. Parker, who 
was some time pastor of Bedford Church, Brooklyn, 
New York. 

CLASS OF 1808 
Byram Green, one of the Men of the Haystack, 
was born in Windsor, Berkshire County, Massachu- 
setts, April 15, 1786. He was descended from ances- 
tors who were among the early Plymouth colonists, one 
of these ancestors being Samuel Green, who succeeded 

[6] 



Biographical Sketches 

Stephen Daye in the first printing establishment intro- 
duced into the Colonies. 

He entered college as a Sophomore in 1805, having 
as classmates Gordon Hall and Francis Le Baron Rob- 
bins. Harvey Loomis, Samuel J. Mills, and James 
Richards were members of the class below him. He 
was a member of the Mills Theological Society and of 
the Philologian Society. In 1806, in the revival which 
had commenced the year before, Green made a profes- 
sion of religion. He attended the prayer meeting by 
the haystack, where the proposal was first made to send 
missionaries from this country into foreign fields. It 
was Mr. Green who, in 1854, identified the spot where 
the haystack stood, the precise location having been un- 
known by any one in Williamstown for more than 
thirty years. Mr. Green subsequently prepared a state- 
ment of the circumstances attending the haystack 
prayer meeting, and the statement was published in 
Durfee's "History of Williams College," from which 
this sketch is in large part taken. The following ex- 
tract is from that statement: "The subject of conversa- 
tion under the stack, before and during the shower, 
was the moral darkness of Asia. Mills proposed to 
send the gospel to that dark and heathen land ; and said 
that we could do it if we would. We were all agreed 
and delighted with the idea, except Loomis, who con- 
tended that it was premature; that if missionaries 
should be sent to Asia they would be murdered; the 
Christian armies must subdue the country before the 
gospel could be sent to the Turks and Arabs. In reply 
it was said that God was always willing to have his 
gospel spread throughout the world; that if the Chris- 
tian public were willing and active, the work would be 
done; that on this subject the Roman adage would 
be true, 'Vox populi, vox Dei.' 'Come,' said Mills, 'let 
us make it a subject of prayer, under the haystack, 

[7] 



Williams College and Missions 

while the dark clouds are going, and the clear sky is 
coming.' " 

At the Commencement, which then came in Septem- 
ber, Mr. Green took part in a disputation with Ste- 
phen P. Steele on the question: "Has Ambition been 
productive of more Evil than Good?" 

After graduation, Mr. Green studied theology with 
Rev. Dr. Packard of Shelburne, and preached for a 
short time, but by reason of ill health he was compelled 
to abandon the ministerial life. 

In May, 1811, he settled in Sodus, New York, which 
was then quite a new settlement. During the first sum- 
mer he slept on straw in a hollow log. By perseverance 
and industry he was enabled to purchase 286 acres of 
land, much of which he cleared and fenced. In 1817 
he was a member of the legislature, where he was the 
youngest member. He was elected again in 1818, 1819, 
and 1821, and during the last term he was Chairman of 
the committee on canals and internal improvements. 
In 1822 he became State Senator, and was made Chair- 
man of the committee on colleges, academies, and com- 
mon schools. He also introduced and carried through 
the legislature some important bills. Por a few years 
he was Judge of the County Courts, and for eight years 
was collector and inspector at Pultneyville, New York. 
In 1843 he was elected to Congress. While in Con- 
gress he usually voted with the Democratic party, 
though he voted against the annexation of Texas, and 
always against the extension of slavery. 

Judge Green was a man of marked honesty and be- 
nevolence, and was always liberal and active in pro- 
moting the interests of civil and religious enterprises. 

Gordon Hall, the first of Williams College gradu- 
ates to go as a missionary into a foreign field, and one 
of the band first ordained for such service by the Amer- 

[8] 



Biographical Sketches 

ican Board, was born in Tolland, formerly Granville, 
Massachusetts, April 8, 1784. He was the son of Na- 
than and Elizabeth (Isham) Hall, who were natives of 
Ellington, Connecticut, and who were among the first 
settlers of Tolland. His grandparents were Thomas 
and Sarah (Clark) Hall and James and Polly (Kings- 
ley) Isham, all except the first named being of Con- 
necticut birth. The family derives its descent from 
George Hall, who, with his wife, Mary, came from 
Devonshire, England, in 1638-7, and settled in Taun- 
ton, Massachusetts, being one of the founders of the 
town and also of the Pilgrim Congregational Church. 

The parents of Gordon Hall, who are spoken of as 
enterprising and industrious, were esteemed in the com- 
munity for their correct moral habits. The father was 
a farmer and the son labored on the farm till the nine- 
teenth or twentieth year of his age. The characteristics 
which marked Gordon Hall in his youth were wit, vi- 
vacity, energy, and perseverance. These qualities, 
combined with a love of amusement, made him a leader 
among the mates of these early years. At an early age 
he showed an unusual variety of genius. Much of his 
leisure time he spent on various mechanical con- 
trivances, constructing, on a small scale, houses, mills, 
and water-wheels. At the age of fourteen, he under- 
took the construction of an air balloon, from a descrip- 
tion which he had come upon in his reading. 

In his early years, also, he showed a taste for reading 
and composition. Some of his first efforts at writing 
were descriptions of local celebrities and partook some- 
what of the nature of satire and caricature. Doubtless 
Tolland, like many other New England towns of that 
day, had many eccentric characters, who were attractive 
subjects for humorists. It was probably about the nine- 
teenth year of his age when, at the suggestion of his 
pastor, the Rev. Roger Harrison, he commenced prep- 

[9] 



Williams College and Missions 

aration for college. He pursued his preparatory- 
studies with Mr. Harrison and was admitted to Wil- 
liams College in February, 1805, receiving the commen- 
dation of President Fitch, who remarked concerning 
him, "That young man has not studied the languages 
like a parrot, but has got hold of their very radix." He 
achieved and maintained, throughout his course, a high 
standard of scholarship, graduating as valedictorian of 
his class. In college he was a member of the Mills 
Theological Society, and also of the Philotechnian So- 
ciety, of which he was one of the presidents. Besides 
delivering the valedictory address at the Commence- 
ment, September 7, 1808, he took part with four class- 
mates in a dialogue on "False Friendships," having also 
on the preceding evening taken part in a dialogue with 
five others. 

Though, before entering college, he had been care- 
fully instructed in the principles of religion by a pious 
mother, he did not make a profession of religion till the 
beginning of the third year of his college course. It 
was his good fortune to be a college mate and most in- 
timate friend of Samuel J. Mills, who was a member 
of the class below him. It was in a revival, in promot- 
ing which Mills was one of the most prominent instru- 
ments, that Hall became hopefully pious. It was Gor- 
don Hall and James Richards to whom Mills first made 
known his missionary plans. The friendship thus 
formed between Hall and Mills became stronger and 
stronger and continued most intimate through life. The 
condition of affairs in college at that time was not such 
as to encourage active piety. Infidelity and irreligion 
along with the prevailing political excitement made the 
life of the Christian student no easy one and called for 
a robust and manly spirit. Hall showed himself pos- 
sessed of such a spirit. Many of his contemporaries in 
college could have borne witness to his bold and manly 

[10] 



Biographical Sketches 

bearing and to the inflexible fidelity with which he 
maintained his ideals of a Christian and a scholar. One 
of these college mates (Rev. Dr. Ezra Fisk) wrote of 
him: "As a Christian, he was uniform, consistent, de- 
cided, and influential. He took a leading part in the 
religious exercises of the students, in the Theological 
Society and prayer meetings. His reputation as a 
scholar was very decidedly the first in his class, and suf- 
fered not in comparison with any one in college. ,, 

Probably it was soon after his conversion that his 
mind was first directed to the subject of missions. At 
any rate, in September, 1808, was formed by a few 
students a society whose object was "to effect in the 
persons of its members a mission or missions to the 
heathen." Some account of this society may be found 
in the sketch given in this volume, of Samuel J. Mills, 
who was one of the leading originators of the associa- 
tion. Though the name of Hall does not appear in 
the list of the original signers of the constitution, there 
is good evidence that he was cognizant of what was 
being done by his fellow students and heartily coop- 
erated with them in their plans. 

In the autumn of 1808, soon after graduation, Mr. 
Hall commenced the study of theology under the in- 
struction of Rev. Dr. Ebenezer Porter (Dartmouth 
1792), who then resided in Washington, Connecticut, 
and afterwards became a professor in Andover Theo- 
logical Seminary. Dr. Porter subsequently wrote of 
him: "The development of his powers during his theo- 
logical investigations satisfied me that, in intellectual 
strength and discrimination, he was more than a com- 
mon man. Of this, however, he was apparently uncon- 
scious, being simple and unpretending in his manners.' ' 

After studying about a year, he received a license to 
preach and was soon invited to preach as a candidate 
for settlement in Woodbury, Connecticut. His con- 



Williams College and Missions 

sent to go was coupled with the provision that his 
preaching there should impose on him no obligation to 
remain as their pastor. He would keep himself free, 
should Providence open the way, to preach the gospel 
to the heathen. It was about this time that his friend, 
Mills, writing from New Haven to a friend, declared 
that Gordon Hall was "ordained and stamped a mis- 
sionary by the sovereign hand of God." He remained 
in Woodbury until June, 1810, having occasionally 
preached in other places, among them Pittsfield, 
Massachusetts, where he remained two months. On 
leaving Woodbury, he at once connected himself with 
the Theological Seminary at Andover, where his com- 
panionship with Mills, Richards, and Rice was renewed, 
and where, with the accession to this circle of Adoniram 
Judson and other kindred spirits, his missionary plans 
were matured. After consulting with the faculty of 
the Theological Seminary, it was determined by the 
young men interested to bring the subject before the 
General Association of Massachusetts, which was about 
to convene at Bradford. In case all other means of 
reaching the heathen failed, Mr. Hall was ready to 
agree to work his passage to India. A paper containing 
the statement of their views and wishes was presented to 
the Association by four young men, — Adoniram Jud- 
son, Jr., Samuel Nott, Jr., Samuel J. Mills, Jr., and 
Samuel Newell, — and was reported on favorably. Out 
of those proceedings came the institution of the "Amer- 
ican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions." 
The young men, whose names are given above, were 
retained under the care of the Board and advised to 
continue their studies till funds should be obtained with 
which to send them to some point in Asia. For their 
greater usefulness among the heathen, Mr. Hall and 
Mr. Newell, under the auspices of the Board, repaired 
to Philadelphia, in the autumn of 1811, to obtain some 

[12] 



Biographical Sketches 

knowledge of medicine, Hall having previously at- 
tended medical lectures in Boston. 

On February 6, 1812, in the Tabernacle Church, Sa- 
lem, Massachusetts, Mr. Hall was ordained as a mis- 
sionary with colleagues, Messrs. Judson, Newell, Nott, 
and Luther Rice. The church is still standing where 
this memorable transaction took place, and one can still 
see the wooden settee where the candidates sat when 
the ordaining hands were laid upon their heads. Some 
of the most prominent divines of the day took part in 
the services of ordination. Dr. Griffin offered the in- 
troductory prayer, Dr. Woods preached the sermon, 
Dr. Morse offered the consecrating prayer, Dr. Spring 
gave the charge, and Dr. Worcester the right hand of 
fellowship. In the accompanying illustration, the or- 
daining ministers are, from left to right, Rev. Drs. 
Morse, Griffin, Spring, Woods, and Worcester. 

After a short visit to his home in Tolland, Mr. Hall 
hastened to Philadelphia to enter upon his voyage. In 
accepting this mission, he had to experience no little 
self-renunciation. Not only, as we may infer from let- 
ters to his parents, did he meet with opposition from 
them, but the people in Woodbury pressed their invita- 
tion for him to settle with them. But he had made his 
decision not without calm and prayerful deliberation. 
His reply to the call from Woodbury was an illustra- 
tion of his firmness of purpose. With "a glistening eye 
and firm accent" (Professor Porter relates) he wrote: 
"No, I must not settle in any parish in Christendom. 
Others will be left whose health or preengagements re- 
quire them to stay at home; but I can sleep on the 
ground, can endure hunger and hardship; God calls 
me to the heathen; wo to me, if I preach not the gos- 
pel to the heathen!" In the trials and difficulties which 
lay before him in his missionary life he had need of all 
his firmness of purpose and indomitable courage. 

[13] 



Williams College and Missions 

Sailing from Philadelphia with Nott and Rice on 
the 24th of February, 1812, he arrived at Calcutta on 
the 8th of August. The missionaries were most cor- 
dially received by Christians of different denomina- 
tions, but met with prompt and rigorous repulse by the 
British East Indian Government. It would require 
pages to give even a brief sketch of the difficulties and 
discouragements which they thus encountered for 
nearly three years. The following extract from Dur- 
fee's "Biographical Annals" touches briefly upon the 
leading events in this period of severe trial: "They were 
ordered away, as 'unlicensed,' by the East India Com- 
pany. Remonstrances were in vain. The door seemed 
closed. Having sought a passport by which they could 
reach Bombay, it was granted, then revoked, and they 
were ordered to England. They entreated but there 
was no relenting. They must be put aboard the British 
fleet and sent from India. But by a wonderful work- 
ing of Providence, the police, who were to transfer 
them, sought elsewhere than on the very ship where 
they had permission to be, and they sailed. Shortly 
after, at a port where they touched, they saw Calcutta 
newspapers, giving their names among the passengers 
taken to England by the fleet that had just sailed. 

"Their vessel, the Commerce, reached Bombay, 
February 11, 1813. Here again was long, earnest, 
manly Christian pleading that they might remain and 
preach the gospel among the heathen. War having 
broken out between the United States and Great Brit- 
ain, they could not be harbored in a British province. 
Sir Evan Nepean, Governor of Bombay, was Vice-Pres- 
ident of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and a 
friend of missions. He favored Mr. Hall and his asso- 
ciates, but was subject to orders from the Governor- 
General in Calcutta. It was a protracted, painful 
struggle for our missionaries; but Mr. Hall's motto 

[14] 



Biographical Sketches 

was like Paul's — 'None of these things move me.' 
And faith had its reward. Stirring appeals were made 
to the authorities. Prayer was lifted. Counsels among 
the directors in England and at Calcutta, and in Bom- 
bay, all took a favorable turn (as when Michael influ- 
enced the counsels of Persia, Daniel X:13) and our 
missionaries had their hearts' desire." 

The communication which Messrs. Hall and Nott 
as a last resort, addressed to Sir Evan Nepean and 
which bears many marks of the style of Hall, is a model 
of vigorous English and sound reasoning, and shows 
what Hall might have been had he chosen law or diplo- 
macy for his vocation. The words which Sir Evan 
Nepean added when he communicated to Mr. Hall the 
decision of the Court of Directors in London, must 
have given large satisfaction to the missionaries for 
their patient waiting: "I can now assure you," says Sir 
Evan, "that you have my entire permission to remain 
here, so long as you conduct yourselves in a manner 
agreeable to your office. I shall feel no difficulty in 
allowing you to go to any part of this presidency, and 
I heartily wish you success in your work." 

Thus was established the first mission of the Amer- 
ican Board. It is not easy to tell what the effect would 
have been on the home churches had their missionaries 
return disheartened and defeated. That they did not 
so return must be ascribed largely to the heroic faith 
and indomitable will of Gordon Hall. 

The years during which they remained simply un- 
der the sufferance of the British Government were not 
wasted. They were perpetually obeying the apostolic 
injunction and did the work of evangelists. They had 
opportunities of usefulness not only among the natives 
but among persons of prominence in the British army. 
They opened a school, and of course gave much time 
to acquiring the languages of the country. The Mah- 

[15] 



Williams College and Missions 

ratta language, then spoken by about 12,000,000 peo- 
ple, was Mr. Hall's more especial study. Though 
there were few facilities for acquiring this language, 
yet by diligent exertion and owing to his scholarly 
habits, Mr. Hall was enabled to use the language for 
religious instruction as early as the beginning of the 
year 1815, within two years after his arrival. In the 
course of this year he translated the most of the Gospel 
of Matthew and prepared a "Harmony of the Gospels" 
and a small tract. 

He now had before him a short decade of service. 
It was a period, however, filled with unremitting toil 
and continued trials, but yet not without encouraging 
success. When, towards the end of this year, Mr. Nott 
had to return to the United States by reason of ill 
health, and Messrs. Hall and Newell were left alone 
among so many millions of heathen, the words of 
Christ must have often come to them, " The harvest 
truly is great, but the laborers are few." The mission, 
however, was strengthened in the following year 
(1816), by the transfer from Ceylon to Bombay of 
Mr. Bard well, who had a knowledge of printing. The 
purchase of a press and types enabled them to put into 
circulation some Mahratta tracts and several books of 
the New Testament which had been translated. On De- 
cember 19 of this year valuable assistance came to the 
mission by the marriage of Mr. Hall to Miss Margaret 
Lewis, an English lady of eminent piety, resident in 
the country, who understood the native character and 
had a good knowledge of the Hindustani language. 

The literary work done by Mr. Hall in the way of 
translation, important as it was, was among the least 
exhausting of his labors. The following extracts from 
his diary of a week give an idea of the variety and un- 
remitting nature of his toil: 

"Nov. 19, 1815, Lord's Day. In the morning I 

[16] . . 



Biographical Sketches 

spoke in four different places, to about seventy per- 
sons. In one of the places where I had not been be- 
fore, read a tract and addressed about twenty. . . . 
At Momadare, a place celebrated for temples, and the 
resort of Hindu worshippers, I held a long discussion 
with some Brahmans in the midst of sixty or seventy 
people. 

"Monday, 20. I have spoken in six different 
places, and, in all, to more than one hundred persons 
to-day. At one place I fell in with some Mussulmans. 

"Tuesday, 21. To-day I have spoken in several 
places, to about one hundred persons. Six or eight of 
them were Jews. 

"Wednesday, 22. Walked out as usual at four 
o'clock p. m. And spoke to about one hundred and 
twenty people. 

"Thursday, 23. To-day have spoken in five or six 
places to about one hundred of the heathen. . . . 
Rendered medical assistance to a woman. . . . Many 
of the people perish miserably for want of medical at- 
tendance. 

"Friday, 24. To-day have spoken in several places 
to more than one hundred people, — From eight to nine 
o'clock in the evening I spent in the house of a heathen, 
where I read and explained a tract to a small company. 

"Saturday, 25. This day addressed about seventy 
persons ; and in the course of the past week have spoken 
to more than eight hundred persons. Blessed be God 
for the privilege!" 

It was his custom to spend an hour or more in the 
morning in teaching the heathen wherever he might find 
them, in temples, markets, and other places of resort. 
The hours from 9 a. m. to 3 p. m. were usually given 
to study. The time from 4 to 7 p. m. was devoted to 
visiting schools and instructing the people. In a let- 
ter written about this time to a friend in America, he 

[17] 



Williams College and Missions 

says: "I can now speak the Mahratta language with 
considerable ease, and daily spend about three hours in 
preaching Christ to heathen, Jews, Mohammedans, and 
Papists. I enjoy perfect health, and am able to labor 
hard about sixteen hours from the twenty-four." Be- 
sides the study of the Mahratta he devoted much time 
also to the Sanskrit and Hindustani. In addition to 
the work of preaching and instructing, much time was 
devoted to translation and to the establishment of free 
schools, which became an important auxiliary to his 
other labors. In 1817, besides a Harmony of the Gos- 
pels, there had been translated the Evangelists, the 
Acts of the Apostles, several of the Epistles, and other 
select portions of the Scriptures. In 1818 the number 
of the schools had been increased to eleven, with 600 
regular attendants. The increase in the number of 
schools and of scholars was to the home churches, an 
omen of success and greatly increased the annual con- 
tributions to the Board. In 1825 the missionaries, 
speaking of their condition as compared with what it 
was ten years before, made this statement: "There 
was then no school to catechize, no schoolroom in which 
to speak of salvation, no chapel to preach in from morn- 
ing to night, no portions of God's Word to circulate, 
no Christian tracts to distribute. There are thirty-five 
schoolrooms to be used, had we the laborers, as so many 
meeting-houses; thirty-five schools, containing 2000 
children calling for evangelical instruction, and five 
times as many districts calling for additional schools." 
But teaching, preaching, translating did not comprise 
all the means of Mr. HalFs influence. In these first 
years after the organization of the American Board, 
Mr. Hall's letters to friends in America were of the 
greatest importance in kindling the zeal of the churches 
and arousing their interest in the subject of missions. 
He wrote to professors in Andover Seminary; and to 

[18] 



Biographical Sketches 

the Society of Inquiry there, of which he had been one 
of the original members, he addressed two lengthy and 
urgent letters, calling for men to enter the mission serv- 
ice. In 1821 he wrote for general circulation an elo- 
quent tract which he entitled, "An Appeal to Protes- 
tant Churches of All Denominations, in Behalf of the 
Heathen." 

In 1825 there came to Mr. and Mrs. Hall an ex- 
perience which is not uncommon for the missionary, but 
which must be one of the hardest to bear. Their two 
boys, of two and four years of age respectively, were in 
extremely delicate health, and two children had already 
died. It was the advice of skilful physicians, as well 
as of all the brethren of the mission, that Mrs. Hall 
should embark with the surviving children for America. 
This separation, which it was expected would be for 
but a year or two, was ordered in the providence of God 
to be final, so far as this world is concerned. The an- 
swer given by Mr. Hall to the entreaties of his wife 
that he should accompany her were characteristic of the 
man, and showed the spirit of the soldier of the cross: 
"Do you know what you ask?" was his reply. "I am 
in good health; I am able to preach Christ to the per- 
ishing souls around me. Do you think I should leave 
my Master's work, and go with you to America? Go, 
then, with our sick boys. I will remain and pray for 
you all, and here labor in our Master's cause; and let 
us hope God will bless the means used to preserve the 
lives of our dear children." Though the voyage was 
at first prosperous, the elder child, whose health had 
seemed at first to improve, was suddenly taken ill and 
died about three weeks before the vessel reached her 
port. But the father was mercifully spared in this 
world the knowledge of his bereavement. 

One of the great satisfactions of Mr. Hall's life 
came to him this year when there was formed by five 

[19] 



Williams College and Missions 

missionary organizations the Bombay Missionary Un- 
ion. This event was of peculiar interest to him be- 
cause of the contrast it presented to the tedious trials 
through which he passed in obtaining the privilege to 
preach the gospel to the heathen. The sermon, from 
the text Romans 1: 16. was preached by Mr. Hall and 
was printed by request of the Union. 

As has already been intimated, the labors of Mr. 
Hall were drawing to a close. Xear the beginning of 
the year 1826 he wrote: " That the truth of God is 
affecting the minds of this people to a considerable 
extent, there can be no doubt. I trust that by and by 
righteousness and salvation will spring up amidst 
this prevailing sin and death. I never felt more en- 
couragement and satisfaction in my work than at pres- 
ent." A few weeks later he wrote and had printed at 
Bombay, in the form of a circular, a letter making a 
fervent appeal on behalf of the heathen and designed 
to be sent to Christian friends and acquaintances in 
America. This message came to this country at the 
same time with the tidings of his death, and so may fit- 
tingly be regarded as his dying legacy to the Christian 
community. 

In accordance with a habit which Dr. Hall had of 
visiting the adjoining continent for the purpose of 
preaching, visiting schools, and distributing tracts, he 
set out the first week in March with two Christian lads 
on a tour to Xasseek, distant more than 100 miles from 
Bombay. He arrived there to find the cholera raging, 
more than 200 dying on the day of his arrival. After 
remaining there three or four days, preaching the gos- 
pel, administering medicine, and distributing books, he 
set out on the 18th on his return. He reached Doorlee 
Dhapoor, about thirty miles on the way homeward, 
about ten o'clock at night, and stopped at a heathen 
temple to pass the night. Calling the lads next morn- 

[20] 



Biographical Sketches 

ing about four o'clock, while he was getting ready to 
proceed on his journey, he was suddenly seized with 
the cholera. Soon becoming aware that he could not 
recover, he gave directions concerning his watch, 
clothes, and disposal of his body, and exhorted the 
natives who stood around him to repent of their sins 
and forsake their idols. Praying fervently for his wife 
and children, for his missionary brethren, and for the 
heathen around him, after eight hours of suffering he 
repeated three times, ''Glory to Thee, O God!*' and 
quietly passed away. This was March 20, 1826. The 
lads shrouded him in his blanket and laid him, without 
a coffin, in the grave which, with some difficulty, they 
had procured. He died in his forty-second year. 
"Thus," writes Dr. W. E. Strong, "passed from earth 
that superb missionary, Gordon Hall, pioneer in the 
first mission of the Board, who gave tone and power to 
its undertaking, not alone in India, but on every field." 

The spot of his burial is marked by a stone monu- 
ment erected bv the mission and bearing in English 
and Mahratta the name, age, and office of this beloved 
fellow laborer. His grandchildren have more recently 
placed in the Hume Memorial Church, Bombay, a 
bronze memorial tablet. 

The widow of Mr. Hail remained in the United 
States and died in 1868 in Northampton, Massachu- 
setts, at the home of the only son, who bore the name 
of his father, and who, after graduating with honor- 
able rank from Yale College in 1843. became a minister 
of distinction. A grandson of Gordon Hall. Rev. 
George A. Hall, D.D., of Brookline, Massachusetts, 
is to-day rendering valuable service to the American 
Board as a member of the Prudential Committee. 

Of the published writings of Mr. Hall, mention has 
already been made, except a sermon which he preached 
in Philadelphia just before sailing for Calcutta, on 

[21] 



Wiliiam8 College and Missions 

"The Duty of American Christians in Relation to the 
Cause of Missions." His style is characterized by 
great clearness, directness, and vigor ; and his thoughts, 
filled with life and power, never fail to suggest that his 
ruling passion was for the salvation of souls. He was 
an eloquent preacher, both in English and Mahratta. 
His manner of preaching is described as calm, delib- 
erate, convincing, and highly devotional. Of the mis- 
sionaries in Western India he was the most celebrated 
among the Brahmans in discussion and in the pulpit. 

It is believed that no portrait of Mr. Hall exists. 
His biographer, the Rev. Horatio Bardwell, D.D., who 
labored with him in the foreign field, has given this pen 
picture of the man : "In person, Mr. Hall was of about 
the ordinary height; — rather slender, and of a sallow 
complexion. He stooped slightly as he walked, and 
seemed meditative, though his movements were easy 
and rapid. His most noticeable feature was his dark, 
intelligent, and penetrating eye, — a truthful index of 
his vigorous and determined mind." 

Mr. Hall was possessed of an equable nature, in 
which was a combination of good qualities. With 
great mental energy, an uncommon sobriety of judg- 
ment, inflexible decision of purpose, and fearless cour- 
age, were joined fervent piety and persevering industry. 
The great Apostle to the gentiles, whom he resembled 
in many of his qualities, was his model and study. 
While he was equal to any effort or sacrifice, he was, 
with all the compelling force of his nature, simple and 
unostentatious. 

No large numbers of converted heathen gave splen- 
dor to his life; it was seven years before he welcomed 
his first convert. The importance of his services and 
the character of the man are revealed in the fact that 
amid all discouragements he held his post where he 
was stationed, thrice by his resolute purpose saving the 

[22] 




WHERE GORDON 1 HALL DIED 







MISSIONARIES*^ 



PTHIS WISE 'AND PATIENT CORRES'PONDENCI 
It WON PROM PARLIAMENT THE PERMISSIO 
) LABOR AMONG THE PEOPLE OF INDIA 

TRANSLATOR TEACHER AND EVANGELIST 

HIS EFFORTS WERE MARKED UY 

NWONTFD FAITHFULNESS AND ZEALOUS OtVQTlOU 

UNTIL HE WAS STRICKEN WITH CHOLERA 

•N DOORLEE DHAPOOR NEAR HASSEEK 

AND DIED MARCH 20 1326 



T HIS TABLtT 
LRECTll 



OPANt) CHILOReN %l 



BRONZE TABLET IN THE HUME MEMORIAL CHURCH, BOMBAY 



Biographical Sketches 

mission from failure. When, amid all his discourage- 
ments, he was offered a large salary to enter the service 
of the East India Company, he preferred to go on with 
the work which he had come to India to perform, and 
to support himself and family by the practice of medi- 
cine. By his devotion he kindled the flame of mission- 
ary zeal in the churches, and his life became an example 
to thousands. He labored and others entered into his 
labors. It was not a forlorn hope which he led, although 
Henry Martyn had just written, "If I ever see a 
Hindu converted to Jesus Christ, I shall see something 
more nearly approaching the resurrection of a dead 
body than anything I have seen." 

Yet, to-day, just at the completion of a century 
since Gordon Hall reached his field, there are in India 
3,000,000 of Christians, Protestant and Catholic, 18,- 
000 Protestant missionaries, 5,000,000 students in 
150,000 schools, and 30,000 university students. And 
these results are but the beginning of the fulfilment of 
the glorious vision which inspired the heart and faith 
of this pioneer among the missionaries of Williams 
College. 

Francis Le Baeon Bobbins, also one of the Men 
of the Haystack, was born in Norfolk, Connecticut, 
December 30, 1787. He was the son of Bev. Ammi 
Buhamah Bobbins (Yale 1760), and Elizabeth (Le 
Baron) Bobbins, and grandson of Bev. Philemon 
Bobbins (Harvard 1729), and Hannah (Foote) Bob- 
bins. Philemon Bobbins was the grandson of Nathan- 
iel Bobbins, who came from Scotland to Massachusetts 
in 1670, and settled at Charlestown, where he died in 
1719 at the age of 70. The social distinction of 
the family is indicated by the fact that the name of 
Ammi B. Bobbins stands third in the list of the class 
of 1760 in the Yale General Catalogue. The wife of 

[23] 



Williams College and Missions 

Ammi R. Robbins was also of distinguished ancestry in 
two lines. Her mother's maiden name was Lydia 
Bradford, great-granddaughter of Governor William 
Bradford of the Plymouth Colony. On her father's 
side she was a descendant of the Huguenots, being the 
granddaughter of Dr. Francis Le Baron, who, as sur- 
geon on board a French privateer, was wrecked in Buz- 
zard's Bay, and being thrown thus on a strange shore 
settled in Plymouth. Rev. Dr. I. N. Tarbox, in his 
Introduction as editor of the Diary of Rev. Thomas 
Robbins, D.D., relates as follows the romantic story 
of the French surgeon: "In the year 1694, a French 
privateer, hovering around our shores to capture ves- 
sels loaded with grain, was wrecked near the upper 
end of Buzzard's Bay, and the men on board were res- 
cued and taken off as prisoners of war. This was in 
the reign of William III. The treaty of Ryswick 
brought peace in 1697. The surgeon on board this 
French privateer was Francis Le Baron. In the trans- 
fer of these prisoners from the head of Buzzard's Bay 
to Boston, a halt was made at Plymouth. On the day 
of their arrival, it so happened that a woman of Plym- 
outh had met with an accident, causing a compound 
fracture of one of her limbs. The local physicians de- 
cided that the limb must be amputated. But Dr. Le 
Baron asked permission to examine the fracture, and 
decided that he could save the limb, which he did. 
This led to a petition on the part of the Selectmen of 
Plymouth to the public authorities, asking that Dr. Le 
Baron might be released, to become a physician and 
surgeon at Plymouth. The request was granted. He 
went there in 1694, married in 1695 Mary Wilder, a 
native of Hingham, Massachusetts, and became the 
father of three sons, James, Lazarus, and Francis." 
Elizabeth Le Baron, the wife of Rev. A. R. Robbins, 
was the daughter of Dr. Lazarus Le Baron. 

[24] 



Biographical Sketches 

Rev. Ammi R. Robbins settled in Norfolk, Con- 
necticut, in 1761, where he built up a large and influen- 
tial church. Dr. Abel McEwen (Yale 1804) , who was 
prepared by him for college, said of him: "It would 
be difficult to select a minister in Connecticut who has 
been more popular with the people of his charge, or who 
exercised over them a more complete or useful control." 
For a time he was a chaplain in the Revolutionary 
Army, and from 1779 to 1783 he relinquished a fifth 
part of his salary (70 pounds) on account of the heavy 
pecuniary drain upon his people. From 1794 to 1810 
he was a trustee of this college. Besides attending to 
the duties of the pastorate, he usually had a number of 
young men in his family preparing for college. He was 
the father of thirteen children. One of the sons, 
Thomas, graduated at Yale and at Williams in the 
same year (1796) ; another, James Watson, graduated 
here in 1802, and Francis Le Baron, the subject of this 
sketch, in 1808. His youngest daughter, Sarah, mar- 
ried Joseph Battell, who received an honorary degree 
from Yale in 1823. Of her three sons, Joseph and 
Philip graduated at Middlebury College in 1823 and 
1826 respectively, and Robbins at Yale in 1839. 
Three of her daughters married ministers, one of them 
being Rev. William A. Larned (Yale 1826), sometime 
professor in Yale, and a fourth daughter married Hon. 
James Humphrey, sometime member of Congress. It 
may be noted here in passing that Harvey Loomis hav- 
ing married a sister of Joseph Battell, and Rev. Phile- 
mon Robbins having married the grandmother of Sam- 
uel J. Mills, Jr., three of the Men of the Haystack, 
viz.: Loomis, Mills, and Robbins, became related by 
marriage. Probably all three of these, being from 
Litchfield County, Connecticut, had been influenced by 
Rev. A. R. Robbins to come to Williams. 

Francis Le Baron Robbins entered college as a 

[25] 



Williams College and Missions 

Freshman in 1804, having pursued his preparatory stud- 
ies, presumably, with his father. He became a mem- 
ber of the Mills Theological Society, and of the Philo- 
logian Society, of which latter he was one of the pres- 
idents. Among his classmates were Byram Green and 
Gordon Hall, while Harvey Loomis and Samuel J. 
Mills were members of the class below his. He was 
a superior student, graduating with Phi Beta Kappa 
rank. At Commencement, he appeared twice on the 
program, once taking part in a dialogue with five class- 
mates, one of whom was Gordon Hall, and once giving 
an oration in Greek, the subject being "On Patriotism." 
His brother, the Rev. Thomas Robbins (Williams 
1796), was present on the occasion and makes the fol- 
lowing record in his Diary: "My brother, Frank, ap- 
peared very well in a Greek Oration. My father and 
brother and sister Battell here." 

After graduation Francis L. B. Robbins taught for 
some years at Westfield Academy, at the same time 
studying theology under the tuition of Rev. Dr. Samuel 
Austin of Worcester, and Rev. Dr. Alvan Hyde of 
Lee, Massachusetts. On September 30, 1813, he was 
licensed by the Litchfield North Association. The fol- 
lowing winter he preached at the north end of Goshen, 
Connecticut, and subsequently he supplied for some 
time at Cornwall, Connecticut. He also engaged in 
missionary work for a time in New Hampshire, and per- 
haps in Vermont. On April 24, 1816, he was ordained 
as pastor of the church in Enfield, Connecticut, where 
he remained as pastor for thirty-four years, till the time 
of his death, April 6, 1850. 

The fact that this was his only settlement would 
indicate that his ministry was highly successful. While 
his sermons were not of the highest order, he enjoyed 
eminent success as a pastor, and the church and society 
were uniformly prosperous during his ministry. At 

[W] 



Biographical Sketches 

prayer meetings and other occasional gatherings, 
whether occasions of rejoicing or of mourning, his serv- 
ices were eminently fitting. When called upon, as he 
often was, to act as chaplain at military reviews, or be- 
fore legislative or judicial bodies, he was happy in ut- 
tering the proper word at the proper time and place. 
Striving always for things that make for peace, he was 
successful in healing divisions and reconciling differ- 
ences. In all of his dealings and relations he exhibited 
a marked courtesy of manner, never giving cause of 
offence to any one, while maintaining a due self-respect. 
While he gained and always maintained the love of his 
own people, he always enjoyed the confidence and es- 
teem of those who were not of the household of faith. 
He was ever the consistent Christian, and one of the 
most striking traits of his character was courtesy. 

He was married first, June 11, 1818, to his own 
cousin, Mrs. Priscilia (Le Baron) Alden, daughter of 
William and Sarah (Churchill) Le Baron, and widow 
of Gideon S. Alden of Fairhaven, Massachusetts. 
She died December 25, 1846, aged 64 years. He mar- 
ried next, January 1, 1848, Miss Hannah S. Cook, a 
teacher of South Dan vers, now Peabody, Massachu- 
setts, who survived him. He had no children. 

A nephew, Rev. Francis Le Baron Robbins, D.D., 
and a grandnephew, Francis Le Baron Robbins, Jr., 
were graduated here in 1854 and 1906 respectively. 

CLASS OF 1809 
Ezra Fisk, son of Simeon Fisk, was born in Shel- 
burne, Massachusetts, January 10, 1785. He was a 
cousin of Rev. Pliny Fisk (Middlebury 1814), mis- 
sionary to Palestine. He pursued his preparatory 
studies with Rev. Theophilus Packard, D.D. (Dart- 
mouth 1796), who was settled as the third pastor of the 
First Congregational Church in Shelburne, in 1799. 

[27] 



Williams College and Missions 

Fisk entered the class of 1809, apparently in the Jun- 
ior year, having among his classmates Harvey Loomis, 
Samuel J. Mills, and James Richards. He became a 
member of the Philotechnian Society and of the Mills 
Theological Society. But that which was perhaps his 
chiefest distinction in college and which gives him a 
place in this volume was the fact that he was one of the 
five signers of the constitution of the first Foreign Mis- 
sionary Society organized in this country. The other 
signers were his classmates, Mills and Richards, and 
John Seward and Luther Rice of the class of 1810. 
This society, whose object was to effect a mission to the 
heathen in the person of its members, was organized 
two years after the haystack prayer meeting. The 
meeting for the organization was held in the northwest 
lower room of the old East College. The name of the 
society, "Brethren," was suggested by Mills, to 
whom, as founder, had been given the honor of naming 
it. He also attempted the first draft of the constitu- 
tion, but the result not being satisfactory, the working 
out of the details was left to Fisk and Richards. At 
the first meeting held for organization, Mills was elected 
president, and Fisk vice-president. It is not to be 
pretended that Williams College was the only place 
where the missionary spirit was manifest near the be- 
ginning of the nineteenth century. According to Dr. 
Fisk the principal agent in awakening a mission- 
ary spirit here was a missionary sermon preached by 
Dr. Griffin, in Philadelphia, in 1805, and shortly after 
republished by the pious students in this college. Good 
men in Salem and Newburyport in 1806, 1807, and 1808 
were also making efforts to establish a Theological 
Seminary at Andover, with which project the mission- 
ary spirit was closely identified. But notwithstanding 
these facts, the words of Dr. Rufus Anderson are ac- 
cepted as a correct statement: "But so far as my own 

[28] 



Biographical Sketches 

researches have gone," writes he, " the first personal 
consecrations to the work of effecting missions among 
foreign heathen nations were here [Williamstown], 
the first observable rill of the stream of American Mis- 
sionaries, which has gone on swelling until now, issued 
on this spot." 

Fisk was apparently a successful student, for he 
had the appointment of an Oration, and was one of the 
speakers at Commencement, the subject of his address 
being, "On the Influence of the Passions over Reason." 

His theological studies, as his preparatory studies, 
were pursued under the Rev. Dr. Packard. He 
preached as a licentiate for about a year, and was or- 
dained as an evangelist in 1810. His labors as an evan- 
gelist were performed principally among the numerous 
destitute congregations in Georgia. In the autumn of 
1812, though debilitated by his residence and labors in 
the South, he preached as a missionary for some months 
in Philadelphia. In August, 1813, he was ordained 
and permanently settled in the ministry at Goshen, 
New York, where he remained about twenty years, and 
where his ministry was greatly blessed. In the autumn 
of 1832, owing to an affection of the lungs, he was com- 
pelled to intermit the greater part of his ministerial 
labors, and for the same cause he spent the following 
winter in Georgia. During his absence, he was ap- 
pointed Corresponding Secretary and General Agent 
of the Board of Missions of the General Assembly. 
This appointment he declined to accept, feeling that his 
health would not enable him to endure the labors and 
exposures of the position. In 1833 he declined an in- 
vitation to accept the presidency of the University of 
Vermont, and about the same time he was elected Pro- 
fessor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Govern- 
ment in the Western Theological Seminary. This ap- 
pointment he accepted, but was not permitted to en- 

[29] 



Williams College and Missions 

ter upon its duties. While on the way to this new field 
of labor, he reached Philadelphia on Saturday, Novem- 
ber 2, 1833. On the evening of the next day, the Sab- 
bath, he preached his last sermon in the lecture room 
of the Second Presbyterian Church in that city. He 
died in Philadelphia, December 5, 1833, in the forty- 
ninth year of his age, and only two months after his dis- 
missal from the church in Goshen. A memorial ad- 
dress was read at the funeral by Rev. Dr. Ashbel Green, 
and was afterwards published in the Christian Advo- 
cate. His remains were removed by a committee of 
his former charge in Goshen from Philadelphia to that 
place. 

Dr. Fisk was Moderator of the General Assembly 
of the Presbyterian Church in 1833, and was for a long 
time a director of the Princeton Theological Seminary, 
and from 1823 to his death in 1833 was a trustee of 
Williams College. 

He received the degree of Master of Arts in course 
from his Alma Mater, and in 1817 from Yale. His 
doctorate was conferred upon him by Hamilton Col- 
lege in 1825. 

Dr. Fisk's intellectual powers, which were superior, 
were described as of the solid, more than of the brilliant 
kind. Possessed of a mind that was vigorous and pen- 
etrating, he could see truth with a quickness and depth 
that were uncommon. Modesty and humility were 
marked features of his character. Combined with his 
integrity, prudence, and firmness, there was a spirit of 
conciliation which gave him a wide influence over men. 
That his scholarship and literary attainments were 
highly respectable, is shown by the prominent positions 
he was invited to fill. While he was unusually familiar 
with Hebrew and New Testament Greek, he was par- 
ticularly fond of science and philosophy. He was an 
impressive preacher, and while his preaching was pe- 

[30] 



Biographical Sketches 

culiarly doctrinal, it was eminently blessed. During 
his pastorate at Goshen, there were added to the church 
nearly 600 new members. 

The following extract is from an obituary notice 
of Dr. Fisk published in a paper in Goshen: "For 
twenty years he resided in the midst of us without un- 
necessarily giving offence to any, and departed to a 
new sphere of usefulness, accompanied by the universal 
regret of the church and community. And how could 
it be otherwise? To a dignity and nobleness of man- 
ner and deportment he added a mildness and sweetness 
of temper, and benignity of heart, irresistibly fasci- 
nating. In imitation of his heavenly Master, while on 
earth, 'he went about doing good/ His sincerity no 
one ever had cause to doubt, and his deep, reverent 
piety was indelibly impressed on his life and conversa- 
tion. In the prime of life; in the midst of honors and 
usefulness; in the full enjoyment of the confidence of 
the church, to which he was zealously attached, he has 
been called to wrestle with the last great enemy, death." 

Dr. Fisk was married in Georgia, in March, 1812, 
to the daughter of Rev. Dr. Francis Cummins. His 
wife survived him. They had no children. 

Dr. Fisk published an Oration delivered before the 
Society of Alumni of Williams College, 1825; a Lec- 
ture on the "Inability of Sinners," delivered in the 
Spruce Street Church, Philadelphia, 1832; besides sev- 
eral sermons, and a series of valuable articles on Mental 
Science in the Philadelphia Christian Advocate for 
1832. 

Harvey Loomis, son of Joseph and Rhoda (Stark) 
Loomis, and grandson of Isaac and Sarah (Gillett) 
Loomis, was born in Torringford, Connecticut, in 1786. 
The name of Loomis occurs frequently in the history 
of Torrington. The immigrant ancestor of the family 

[31] 



Williams College and Missions 

seems to have been Joseph Loomis, who was born, prob- 
ably, about 1590. Eefore coming to America he was 
a woolen draper in Braintree, Essex County, Eng- 
land. He sailed from London, April 11, 1638, in the 
ship Susan and Ellen, arriving in Boston July 17 of 
the same year. He went to Windsor, Connecticut, 
probably in the summer or autumn of 1639, and is gen- 
erally supposed to have gone in company with Rev. 
Ephraim Huit, who arrived at Windsor August 17, 
1639. The Windsor records show that he bought land 
in that town February 24, 1640. The father of Har- 
vey Loomis was a farmer, and the early years of the 
son were passed on the father's farm. On account of 
his personal interest in religion he was early possessed 
with an earnest desire to become a preacher of the gos- 
pel. After a brief preparation he entered Williams as 
a Sophomore, and took a good rank as a scholar. Har- 
vey Loomis, Orange Lyman, and Samuel J. Mills, 
whose names stand together in the roll of the class of 
1809, all came from the same church in Torringford, 
the church of which Samuel J. Mills, Sr., was pastor. 
In college Loomis was a member of the Mills Theo- 
logical Society, and also of the Philologian Society, of 
which he was for a time president. He was one of the 
speakers at Commencement, the subject of his address 
being, "On the Disadvantages of continuing too long 
on the Stage." 

After graduation he studied theology partly with 
Rev. Samuel J. Mills, Sr. (Yale 1764), of his native 
town, and partly with Rev. Dr. Ebenezer Porter, 
(Dartmouth 1791), of Washington, Connecticut, aft- 
erwards Professor of Sacred Rhetoric at Andover. At 
the haystack meeting, Loomis felt that the proposal to 
send the gospel to Asia was premature, and expressed 
his strong preference for Home Missions. His sub- 
sequent career was ordered in accordance with this con- 

[82] 



Biographical Sketches 

viction. Being licensed to preach the gospel in 1811, 
he went as a home missionary, under commission of the 
Maine Missionary Society, to Bangor, Maine, then con- 
sidered a very important field of labor but difficult be- 
cause of the irreligion and wickedness of the place. 
On November 27 of that year he was ordained pastor 
of a church which had been organized there the day be- 
fore, and which consisted of four members, embracing 
all the male professors of religion of the town. For a 
year the services were held in an unfinished hall over a 
store, but in 1812 a court-house was built, in which Mr. 
Loomis preached until 1821, when the first meeting- 
house of the town was built. 

In the first three years of his ministry the additions 
to the church were but few; but after that, to the close 
of his ministry, the church increased constantly in num- 
bers, some being added at nearly every communion sea- 
son. The church became strong and influential, rather, 
however, because it embraced nearly all the prominent 
men in the place, than because of its numbers. During 
his pastorate 107 members were added to the church 
by profession and forty by letter. 

In his principles and habits he was the uncompro- 
mising Puritan, but in all his intercourse with his people 
he was ever the consistent Christian gentleman. His 
public services were limited to two sermons on the Sab- 
bath and a conference meeting on Wednesday evening. 
The number of meetings was not increased, even in 
times of special religious interest. He was especially 
happy and successful in his conduct of the Wednesday 
conference. It was his desire that every man present, 
whether a professor of religion or not, should take some 
part in the conference. Even those who had objection 
to the Christian system were encouraged to present 
their objections, which he endeavored to answer fairly. 
He was eminently successful in his ministrations, 

[M] 



Williams College and Missions 

and was honored by the love and reverence of his pa- 
rishioners. Along with great firmness of character and 
unusual moral courage, he combined rare self-posses- 
sion and unusual tact. In the History of Maine, he is 
described as " an able minister and a most excellent 
man." As a speaker he had a clear voice and fluent 
utterance, while his enunciation was remarkably dis- 
tinct. He is described as having the advantage of a fine 
person and natural grace of manner, being rather tall, 
of commanding form, having a noble countenance and 
brilliant eye. 

His death, which occurred on the morning of Jan- 
uary 2, the first Sabbath of the year 1825, was sudden 
and almost tragic. It was an inclement day, and Mr. 
Loomis walked about a third of a mile to the church, in 
the face of a severe snowstorm. Soon after reaching 
the pulpit he was seen to fall, and soon expired. In his 
pocket was found the sermon which he had prepared to 
preach that day, the text being, "This year thou shalt 
die." 

In 1811 he was married to Miss Anna (Nancy) Bat- 
tell, of Torringford. She was the daughter of William 
and Sarah (Buckingham) Battell, and granddaughter 
of John and Mehitabel (Sherman) Battell. This 
Mehitabel Sherman was a sister of the patriot, Roger 
Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence. 
Mrs. Loomis' great-grandfather, John Battell, came 
from France to America and settled at Dedham, Mas- 
sachusetts. Sally Battell, a sister of Mrs. Loomis, mar- 
ried Rev. Dr. Abel McEwen (Yale 1804), of New 
London, Connecticut. Joseph Battell, who married a 
daughter of Rev. Ammi R. Robbins (Yale 1760), and 
all of whose nine children became distinguished, was a 
brother of Mrs. Loomis. 

Of the six children born to Mr. and Mrs. Loomis, 
four died when young. Of the two sons who lived to 

[84] 



Biographical Sketches 

maturity, one, Harvey, married Martha Maria L'Hui- 
lier, of Geneva, Switzerland, where he died August 14, 
1857. 

Mrs. Loomis, the widow of the subject of this sketch, 
died July 27, 1861, aged 78 years. 

Samuel John Mills, Jr., fourth son and seventh 
child of Rev. Samuel (John) and Esther (Robbins) 
Mills, and grandson of John and Jane (Lewis) Mills, 
was born at Torringford, Connecticut, April 21, 1783. 
The middle name, John, of the father, does not appear 
on the family record, but was added after the death of 
an older brother of that name. 

The ancestry is a distinguished one, and is traced 
to Peter Van der Water Meulen (or Mlihlen), who 
was born in Holland in 1622, and who, being disinher- 
ited on account of his religious views, came to America, 
landing in Boston, and subsequently making his home 
in Windsor, Connecticut. It was while he lived there 
that, at his request, his name was changed by the Co- 
lonial Legislature to Peter Mills. 

The family was distinguished for its proclivity to 
ministerial life and for the number of its members who 
were college graduates. The father of Samuel J., Jr., 
graduated from Yale in 1764. Three greatuncles, the 
Revs. Jedidiah, Gideon, and Ebenezer, and one uncle, 
Edmund Mills, were graduated at Yale in 1722, 1737, 
1738, and 1775, respectively. Two sisters of his father 
married respectively the Rev. Joel Bordwell and Jere- 
miah Day, both of Yale 1756. After the death by 
drowning of his grandfather, his grandmother (Jane 
Lewis, of Stratford) married in 1778 the Rev. Phile- 
mon Robbins of Branford, who was graduated at Har- 
vard in 1733. 

Samuel J. Mills, Sr., studied theology under his 
brother-in-law, Mr. Bordwell, the pastor in Kent (who 

[35] 



Williams College and Missions 

had prepared him for college), and was licensed to 
preach by the Litchfield South Association of Minis- 
ters on February 7, 1766. On June 28, 1769, he was 
ordained as pastor in the new parish of Torringford, in 
his native county. Here was done his life work. After 
an unprecedentedly long pastorate, of unusual power, 
he died in Torringford on May 11, 1833, at the age 
of 90. 

"Father Mills," as he was commonly called in later 
life, is described as tall and well proportioned, full of 
grace and dignity. He was an eminently faithful and 
laborious pastor, and a remarkably strong preacher. 

Sprague's "Annals of the American Pulpit" con- 
tains a graphic account of him, prepared by Dr. Abel 
McEwen. A sketch of him, under the pseudonym 
of "Father Morris," is also given by Mrs. Harriet 
Beecher Stowe, in her volume called "The Mayflower." 

The mother of the subject of this sketch was a 
woman of most amiable qualities, being noted for sym- 
metry of character, a marvellous sweetness of spirit, 
excellency of judgment, and largeness of Christian love 
and sympathy toward all men. Intrusted as she was 
with the principal management of the family, she is 
described as " the great angel of comfort, strength, sup- 
port, guide, and help to her husband and family." She 
it was who once said in the hearing of this son, "I have 
consecrated this child to the service of God as a 
missionary/ 3 To be born of such parents and to pass 
one's childhood and youth in such a home, where the 
most faithful instructions as to intellectual and moral 
cultivation were constant and of the best kind, are con- 
ditions which go far in accounting for the remarkable 
life we are considering. Young Mills could hardly 
have been insensible to the influences of the scenery, 
also, that surrounded his home, from which the view ex- 
tends in every direction to the distance of between ten 

[36] 



Biographical Sketches 

and thirty miles, revealing a large portion of the inter- 
vening valleys and hills. It may be that this scenery 
had something to do with fixing upon the mind of the 
youth that enlarged interest which he afterwards mani- 
fested for the salvation and well-being of the whole 
world. 

The religious experience of this youth was striking, 
though not altogether unusual or peculiar in a period 
when the prevailing view was that nothing availed to- 
ward salvation without the experience of a marvellous 
and almost miraculous change of heart. When quite 
young his mind exhibited an unusual sensibility to the 
concerns of religion, and he was easily and sometimes 
deeply affected with his neglect of religious opportuni- 
ties, and his ruined condition as a sinner. These feel- 
ings had gradually passed away when, in 1798, his na- 
tive town was visited by one of those "outpourings" 
which were formerly regarded as a necessary phase of 
the life of the church, and which were expected to recur 
with more or less regularity. At that particular time 
150 congregations of New England were blessed with 
revivals of religion. 

For young Mills, then fifteen years of age, and of a 
very retired and incommunicative disposition, the sea- 
son of this revival was the beginning of a period of dis- 
mal distress which lasted for more than two years. The 
bitterness of this distress, his views of his own sinful- 
ness, his opposition to God, the apparent discrimina- 
tions of divine favor when he saw companions and mem- 
bers of his own home rejoicing in hope while he was left 
in "the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity," — 
these things so moved him that he would sometimes 
"break out in expressions of unyielding rebellion." The 
question with him was not whether he was willing "to 
bow at the footstool of mercy," but whether there was 
any "footstool of mercy"; whether, in other words, the 

[87] 



Williams College and Missions 

mercy of God included him. It was about this time and 
with some apparent mitigation of his distress that he 
left home for a neighboring town, to take charge of a 
farm that had been bequeathed to him by his maternal 
grandmother. But the letters of this period show that 
he was still worried with apprehension lest he should 
at last be an exile from God's presence. It was when, 
after his return home, he could find no assurances that 
he was one of the elect, that he cried out to his mother: 
"O that I had never been born! O that I had never 
been born! For two years I have been sorry God ever 
made me." This scene, which occurred when he was 
bidding farewell to his mother on setting out to attend 
the academy in Litchfield, has been eloquently de- 
scribed in the Memoir by Dr. Gardiner Spring, who 
shows us the mother at her prayers and the son, even 
while on his journey, coming into the liberty of the 
sons of God, and instead of cherishing opposition to the 
divine sovereignty, exclaiming "O glorious sover- 
eignty! O glorious sovereignty!" With a great price he 
had obtained this freedom and it is not strange he should 
at once be possessed by the spirit and ambition to help 
a ruined world. In fact, the first idea the father had of 
his son's change of mind came from an observation he 
made soon after his return from Litchfield, "that he 
could not conceive of any course of life in which to pass 
the rest of his days, that would prove so pleasant, as to 
go and communicate the gospel salvation to the poor 
heathen." 

Here was manifested the influence of a missionary 
mother who had often spoken to her son of Brainerd 
and Eliot and other missionaries, but above all, here in 
this remote field of Litchfield County was shown the 
spirit of God coming over this youth as in an earlier age 
that spirit had come over Elisha. Having arranged his 
secular affairs, he went through a course of study pre- 

[38] 



Biographical Sketches 

paratory to college. The family, as we have seen, had 
been closely affiliated with Yale, but now there had re- 
cently been established a new college in the county just 
to the north of his home, and he chose the young and 
small college. He entered Williams in the spring of 
1806, and on the first Sabbath of June following he con- 
nected himself with his father's church. In college he 
was a member of the Philotechnian Society. 

As a scholar he had a respectable standing, but 
with him scholarship was a means to an end. One 
who apparently knew him well writes: "We must not 
contemplate him as a student, a writer, or a preacher, 
but as a philanthropist, wise in council, active, zealous, 
self-sacrificing, and devoted to good works. He did 
not claim to be a classical scholar, a lucid writer, or a 
popular orator. While his figure was manly, his ap- 
parel studiously neat, and his manner rather graceful, 
his voice was not clear, nor his eye brilliant, nor his 
language fluent. Unlike his father, he had no wit." 
The noblest record of his college life is to be read in his 
diary, and what he accomplished during his under- 
graduate years has become one of the chiefest distinc- 
tions of the Berkshire college. The two things most 
prominent in his daily ejaculations are his prayers for 
a revival of religion in the college and his yearnings for 
the conversion of the world. If the scenery of his 
native town helped to turn his thoughts to far-off peo- 
ples, his environment at Williamstown, where he could 
look across intervening valleys upon the mountains of 
three states, could only emphasize the thought that the 
field is the world. Very opportunely for him and for 
the college, the spring of 1906, when he entered, was 
the time in which, succeeding a long period of religious 
depression and spiritual darkness, there were signs of 
spiritual refreshing. In the subsequent revival the 
chief instrument was Mills, of whom it was said that 

[39] 



Williams College and Missions 

nothing to him had charms so powerful as the glory of 
his Redeemer and the salvation of men. Not a few of his 
fellow students who afterwards became ministers, and 
some who were sent by the American church to the 
savages of this country and to the heathen in other 
lands, remembered his instrumentality in their conver- 
sion and missionary zeal. One of the subjects of this 
revival was Gordon Hall, of the Sophomore class, a 
man who was superior to Mills in intellect and scarcely 
second to him in zeal, and who, under the providence 
of God, was permitted a much longer period of service 
than was Mills in foreign mission work. It was on a 
hot and sultry afternoon in the summer of 1806, in this 
period of revival, that five of the pious young men, 
who had been accustomed to meet in a secluded grove, 
every Saturday afternoon, for prayer and conference, 
held the meeting which has made that spot holy ground. 
Tradition relates that, a thunderstorm coming on, 
these youth retired from the grove to the shelter of a 
haystack near at hand, and there continued in conver- 
sation and prayer. To that meeting, where these young 
men took counsel one of another and sought direction 
of Him who said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach 
the gospel,'' may be traced the institution of foreign 
missions in the American churches. The names of 
these five students as they are cut in the marble monu- 
ment which was erected in 1887 on the site of the hay- 
stack are as follows : 

Samuel J. Mills 

James Richards 

Francis L. Robbins 

Harvey Loomis 

Byram Green 

All of these became ministers of the gospel, the first 
two devoting themselves to the work of foreign mis- 
sions, Robbins and Loomis to home missions, while 

[40] 



Biographical Sketches 

Green, whose health failed, had to abandon the minis- 
try and became distinguished in political life. 

Of this list of brilliant names that of Mills not only- 
stands first on the monument but holds the first and 
highest place in the thoughts of men to-day. Dr. 
Spring in the Memoir of Mills says that in his zeal 
and exertions as a Christian philanthropist, "it is no 
exaggeration to say, he stands almost without a paral- 
lel among men not actuated by the miraculous agency 
of the Holy Ghost." In the revival of his Freshman 
year, to which reference has been made, Mills was 
chiefly instrumental in producing the blessed work, and 
the succeeding years of his college course saw no abate- 
ment of his zeal for the welfare of his college mates and 
of his yearning for work in foreign fields. The follow- 
ing is from the diary of his college days: "O that I 
might be aroused from this careless and stupid state, 
and be enabled to fill up life well! I think I can trust 
myself in the hands of God, and all that is dear to me ; 
but I long to have the time arrive when the gospel shall 
be preached to the poor Africans, and likewise to all 
nations/' Few will refuse to acknowledge that Mills 
had a distinguished agency in inaugurating a new era 
in the history of missions in this Western world. 

For some reason or other the closing years of the 
eighteenth century were rich in the establishment of in- 
stitutions designed for the improvement of the human 
race. The happy termination of the war for American 
Independence may have helped to turn the thoughts of 
men to brighter hopes for the future. In 1792, the first 
modern Missionary Society was established in Eng- 
land by Carey and others, which was followed in 1795 
by the institution of the London Missionary Society. 

Aside from a branch society of the Moravians (es- 
tablished in Boston, 1787) for work among the Indians, 
the honor of commencing the first missionary exertions 

[41] 



Williams College and Missions 

in the United States belongs to the Presbyterian 
Church, which, as early as 1789, passed an order requir- 
ing their churches to take up collections for a missionary 
fund. A missionary society was established in New 
York in 1796, in Connecticut in 1798, in Massachusetts 
in 1799, in New Jersey in 1801. It is interesting to note 
that Williams, Bowdoin, Union, and Middlebury Col- 
leges were founded in 1793, 1794, 1795, and 1800 re- 
spectively. Here was a decade rich in most important 
events in the history of the evangelization of the world. 
Before the end of another decade the same spirit that 
had moved at the same time upon men on both sides of 
the ocean to establish missionary societies and colleges 
was now moving simultaneously upon the minds of dif- 
ferent young men in Williams College. When Mills 
first unbosomed himself to Gordon Hall and James 
Richards, and afterwards to others, much to his surprise 
and gratification he found that the Spirit of God had 
been putting into their hearts the same thoughts he had 
cherished. It may perhaps be considered as one of the 
fruits of the revival of 1806 that in the spring or autumn 
of 1808 Mills, Richards, and two or three others organ- 
ized a society whose operation and existence were en- 
tirely unknown to the rest of the college. The historic 
room where this society was formed and where it, with 
considerable additions, used to meet, was the northwest 
corner lower room of East College. The following are 
two of the articles of the original constitution: 

"The object of this Society shall be to effect in the 
persons of its members, a mission or missions to the 
heathen.' ' 

"No person shall be admitted who is under any en- 
gagement of any kind, which shall be incompatible with 
going on a mission to the heathen." 

Some years afterwards, at the dedication of the col- 
lege chapel, President Griffin, in speaking of this so- 



Biographical Sketches 

ciety, said: "I have been in situations to know that from 
the counsels formed in that sacred conclave, or from the 
mind of Mills himself, arose the American Board of 
Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the American Bi- 
ble Society, the United Foreign Missionary Society, 
and the African School, under the care of the Synod of 
New York and New Jersey; besides all the impetus 
given to domestic missions, to the Colonization So- 
ciety, and to the general cause of benevolence in both 
hemispheres." 

It seems a little strange that the constitution and 
records of that society were written in cipher. The 
reasons for this secrecy are given in a letter of Rev. 
Ezra Fisk, D.D., who was one of the original members 
of the Society in Williams College. According to him, 
the general reasons were the possibility of failure in 
the enterprise, and a modesty which required them to 
conceal their association lest they should be thought 
rashly imprudent. "Besides this," Dr. Fisk continues, 
"Mills always desired to be unseen in all his movements 
on this subject, which, I am well persuaded, arose from 
his unaffected humility, never desirous to distinguish 
himself, but to induce others to go forward." 

The first object of this fraternity was so to influence 
the public mind as to lead to the formation of a mis- 
sionary society. When one reads the eloquent sermons 
that were preached at the annual meetings of the 
Massachusetts Missionary Society, one might think the 
people were all ready for such a movement and would 
not have deemed extravagant the zeal of Mills as shown 
in a letter to Gordon Hall, "I wish I were able to break 
forth as to numbers, like the Irish rebellion, thirty 
thousand strong." 

But the eloquent zeal of those missionary sermons 
was far in advance of the public sentiment, and Mills 
and his associates had to employ a variety of agencies 



Williams College and Missions 

to carry forward their benevolent designs. They re- 
published and circulated the sermon of Dr. Griffin 
preached before the General Assembly and one by Dr. 
Livingston preached before the New York Missionary 
Society; they wrote to distinguished clergymen, among 
whom were Drs. Dana, Griffin, Morse, and Worcester. 
They visited and conferred with these men and labored 
among their people. In further prosecution of their 
plans one of their number, possibly Edward Warren, 
joined Middlebury College in order to introduce a sim- 
ilar society there. Attempts that were unsuccessful 
were made at Dartmouth and Union Colleges, and 
Mills at one time planned to transfer his relation to 
Yale College. After graduation at Williams he did 
spend some months at Yale, ostensibly to study the- 
ology, but really to find kindred spirits who could be 
encouraged in his great enterprise. 

In 1810 Mills joined the Seminary at Andover, 
Gordon Hall following soon afterwards and James 
Richards — one of the students of the haystack — being 
there before them. The strongest members of the 
"Brethren" had already come to Andover and brought 
with them the constitution and records of that society. 
Richards and Robbins, on talking with other students 
on foreign missions, had found others already interested 
in the subject. Among these were Samuel Nott, Jr., 
graduate of Union College, Adoniram Judson of 
Brown, and Samuel Newell of Harvard. Guizot, in his 
"History of European Civilization,' ' remarks: "To say 
why a great man appears on the stage at a certain 
epoch, or what of his own individual development he 
imparts to the world at large, is beyond our power; it 
is the secret of Providence ; but the fact is still certain." 
So when there were gathered at Andover at the 
same time these choice young men whose thoughts were 
turned to the same great theme we had a "secret of 

[44] 



Biographical Sketches 

Providence." The mind of Judson was impressed with 
this thought when, under date of July 13, 1830, he wrote 
to Rice: "I have ever thought that the providence of 
God was conspicuously manifested in bringing us all 
together, from different and distant parts. Some of us 
have been considering the subject of missions for a long 
time, and some but recently. Some, and indeed the 
greater part, had thought chiefly of domestic missions, 
and efforts among the neighboring tribes of Indians, 
without contemplating abandonment of country and de- 
votement for life. The reading and reflection of others 
had led them in a different way ; and when we all met at 
the same seminary, and came to a mutual understanding 
on the ground of foreign missions and missions for life, 
the subject assumed in our minds such an overwhelming 
importance and awful solemnity, as bound us to one 
another, and to our purpose more firmly than ever." 
In the seminary as in college Mills was ever zeal- 
ously engaged in urging upon the attention of 
the students the importance of missions. It is not 
strange that his fellow students considered him "an 
extraordinary man." A letter written to a brother by 
his roommate, Timothy Woodbridge, gives us a 
glimpse of Mills in his first year at Andover: "I had no 
conception when I first met him of his being such a 
man as I very soon found him to be, while we were 
roommates. He has an awkward figure and ungainly 
manner and an unelastic and croaking sort of voice; 
but he has a great heart and great designs. His great 
thoughts in advance of his age are not like the dreams 
of a man who is in a fools' paradise, but they are judi- 
cious and wise." Yet, in spite of his zeal and fitness 
for leadership, with a characteristic modesty he never 
sought for primacy in his special efforts. 

After the arrival of Mills the secret society that had 
been formed at Williams was instituted at Andover. 

[45] 



Williams College and Missions 

Proceeding with the greatest caution and secrecy in 
choosing new members, the Brethren admitted Judson, 
Newell, and Nott only after the closest investigation. 
Only those were admitted as members who pledged 
themselves to go as foreign missionaries. It was this 
society of the "Brethren" who, feeling the need of 
some organization for disseminating missionary in- 
formation as well as for inspiration, organized at 
Andover, January 8, 1811, the "Society of Inquiry 
on the Subject of Missions,'' which is still in exist- 
ence. But while the members of the Society of the 
Brethren were pledged to go as foreign missionaries 
there was no real foreign missionary society in 
America. The attempt to answer the question, 
"And how shall they preach, except they be sent?" 
led to the formation of the American Board. By 
the advice of the professors of the seminary and of 
Drs. Samuel Worcester and Samuel Spring, the young 
men submitted their case to the General Association of 
Massachusetts which met at Bradford, June 27, 1810. 
The paper is said to have been drawn up by Judson 
and was signed by Judson, Nott, Mills, and Newell. 
The petition, asking among other things "whether they 
may expect patronage and support from a Missionary 
Society in this country," was referred to a committee 
of three, who reported in favor of the institution of a 
"Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 'for 
the purpose of devising ways and means, and adopting 
and prosecuting measures' for promoting the spread 
of the Gospel in Heathen lands." So were realized the 
vision and ambition of Mills. "To his faith, foresight, 
and initiative," says Rev. Thomas C. Richards, "more 
than to that of any other man, was this organization 
due." 

It was not till February 6, 1812, a year and a half 
after the organization of the Board, that the first mis- 

[46] 



Biographical Sketches 

sionaries, five in number, were ordained. They were 
Hall, Judson, Newell, Nott, and Rice. This important 
historic event has been memorialized by an oil painting 
which now hangs in the Tabernacle Church in Salem, 
Massachusetts, where the ordination took place. 

It is a question most natural to ask and one that has 
often been discussed, why Mills was not chosen one of 
this advance-guard of foreign missionaries. Undoubt- 
edly much weight must be given to the characteristic 
modesty of the man in giving way to Gordon Hall, 
whom he believed to be better fitted than himself to re- 
ceive this high honor. But a more probable reason is 
the one given by Dr. Rufus Anderson, that it was con- 
sidered that Mills would be of greater service to the 
cause by remaining at home and exciting the inter- 
est of the churches in the cause of missions. This 
reason finds strong support in a letter written by 
Hall to Mills from Bombay in 1815, and also in the 
statement of one of the Brethren who years afterwards 
was asked the question why Mills did not go with the 
first missionaries. 

But if Mills was at first hindered from going to 
other lands, a casual event under the providence of God 
brought foreign missionary work to him at home. This 
was the meeting in New Haven with Henry Obookiah, 
a Hawaiian youth. This led eventually to the estab- 
lishment at Cornwall, Connecticut, of a school for the 
education of heathen youth, — really the first progenitor 
of Hampton Institute and Tuskegee. The school was 
subsequently discontinued, but in 1823 it numbered 
thirty- six, — "three Anglo-Saxons, nine Sandwich 
Islanders, one Malay, one Maori, three Chinese, one 
Portuguese, two Greeks, one Jew, and fifteen Amer- 
ican Indians of nine different tribes." A visit to that 
school gave to Hiram Bingham a new impulse to 
preach the gospel to the islands of the Pacific, and from 

[47] 



Williams College and Missions 

that school came a petition to the American Board to 
send out missionaries to the Sandwich Islands. It was 
in response to that petition and in answer to the prayer 
of the Hawaiian youth that two ordained missionaries 
and fifteen others were sent by the Board in 1819 to 
those Islands. It was at one time the purpose of Mills 
to take Obookiah and go to the Islands and there spend 
his life. 

From the completion of his theological studies at 
Andover in 1812 to the death of Mills was a period of 
but six short years, yet they were years which, for him, 
were crowded with important events. In his fiery zeal 
for missions, for him the field was the world. In his 
talks with his companions his plans for missions took in 
North and South America, as well as Asia and Africa. 
With Gordon Hall he had spoken of "cutting a path 
through the moral wilderness of the West to the Paci- 
fic," and when urged, as he often was, to settle in some 
of the newer portions^ of our country, he wrote to a 
friend: "I tell you, at (6nce, the field is not large enough 
for me. I intend, God willing, the little influence I have 
shall be felt in every State in the Union." In the earlier 
part of 1812 Mills and John F. Schermerhorn, on the 
recommendation of Andover Seminary, were commis- 
sioned as missionaries by the Connecticut and Massa- 
chusetts Missionary Societies. Starting west by differ- 
ent routes the missionaries met at Marietta, Ohio, and 
there, at the meeting of the Muskingum Association, 
organized the first of the many Bible societies instituted 
in their tours. From Cincinnati their journey lay south 
to New Orleans, from which place, after about three 
weeks' stay, they returned north through Mississippi 
and Georgia. In this first missionary journey of Mills, 
which lasted slightly more than a year, Mills, accord- 
ing to the estimate of Mr. Richards, had travelled 
nearly 3000 miles and traversed nearly every state and 

[48] 



Biographical Sketches 

territory in the Union, meeting numerous dangers and 
suffering severe privations. "Swimming his horse 
across the creeks, sleeping on the deck of a flatboat, 
tramping through nearly impenetrable cane-brakes and 
swamps, he had kept steadfastly on. In loghouse, 
schoolhouse, and statehouse, in rude church, or no 
church at all, he had preached the gospel." Besides 
preaching, distributing Bibles and establishing Bible 
societies, Mills and Schermerhorn, according to a com- 
mission they had received, made painstaking and exten- 
sive inquiries in regard to the Indian tribes residing 
west of the Alleghany Mountains. 

Refusing various calls to go on missions to other 
places, in 1814 Mills, with one companion, Daniel 
Smith, undertook a second missionary tour, this time 
to go as far west as St. Louis, and thence back through 
Illinois and Indiana, and then south to New Orleans 
again. Reaching the latter place just after the battle 
of New Orleans, he found unexpected work in visiting 
British prisoners and the sick and wounded of both 
armies. But the real purpose of his going to New Or- 
leans, the distribution of Bibles, in English and French, 
was not forgotten and his efforts were cordially wel- 
comed even by Roman Catholics. In the following year 
Mills and Smith returned by way of Charleston, Balti- 
more, and Philadelphia, to New England. In the con- 
cluding sentences of the report of this journey they 
write: "Surely goodness and mercy have followed us all 
the way, on a journey of more than 6000 miles, and 
passing through a great variety of climates, — in perils 
in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils on the 
sea, — the Lord has preserved us." 

In these two tours Mills and his associates not only 
preached and supplied the Bible to the destitute, but or- 
ganized numerous local Bible societies. The elaborate 
reports of these journeys which were published resulted 

[49] 



Williams College and Missions 

in the formation of missionary societies and in the send- 
ing out of men to preach the gospel in these newer por- 
tions of the country, and also had an important influ- 
ence in political affairs. Not without deep significance 
does Mr. Richards attribute to Mills the title of "Home 
Missionary Statesman.'' Mills' words had a deeper 
meaning than he thought when, in declining an invita- 
tion to settle in the Western Reserve, he wrote: "I in- 
tend, God willing, the little influence I have shall be felt 
in every State in the Union." 

After his ordination in June, 1815, being hindered 
from going on a mission to the Indians and again to 
South America, he resided the next two years chiefly 
in the Middle States, the summer of 1816 being spent 
in New York in missionary work. During these years 
was brought about a plan dear to his heart, namely, 
the organization of "The United Foreign Missionary 
Society," in which Mills was the prime mover. 

The final service of Mills' short life was the gratifica- 
tion of a hope he had expressed in his college days when 
he wrote in his diary: "I long to have the time arrive 
when the gospel shall be preached to the poor Africans, 
and likewise to all nations." In his trips through the 
South Mills had studied the conditions of the colored 
people, had been deeply impressed with the needs of 
"the poor African brethren," and had been impelled by 
a desire to meliorate their condition. He had planned 
schemes of colonization and by his efforts had 
brought about the establishment of the African 
School at Parsippany, New Jersey. When, in 
1817, there was formed "The American Society for 
colonizing the free people of color in the United 
States," Mills saw his opportunity. He not only sug- 
gested and, by request, prepared a pamphlet setting 
forth to the public the purposes of the Colonization 
Society, but he volunteered to visit Africa as the agent 

[50] 



Biographical Sketches 

of the Society and select a site for the proposed colony. 
Choosing as his companion Professor Ebenezer 
Burgess, of the University of Vermont, he set sail for 
England November 16, 1817, remarking to a friend as 
he was about to embark: "This is the most important 
enterprise in which I have ever been engaged." After 
being nearly shipwrecked by a furious gale in the Eng- 
lish Channel, Mills and Burgess after some delay 
reached London, where they were most cordially wel- 
comed by Wilberforce, Lord Bathurst, the Duke of 
Gloucester, and many other philanthropists. Leaving 
England February 2, 1818, they came to anchor in the 
river Gambia on March 13. They spent five weeks of 
arduous toil under a tropical sun, visiting the mainland 
and the islands of the coast in their endeavor to find 
a tract suitable for a colony. Along with the work of 
exploring, gathering information, and "palavering' ' 
with the natives, they let go no opportunity to preach 
the gospel. In accordance with the report of Mills and 
Burgess which established the fact that territory could 
be procured and a colony established, the first colony 
landed at Sherbro in April, 1822, and in 1847 Liberia 
became an independent nation. 

On May 22, 1818, the companions took passage for 
London in the brig Success. As Mills stood on the 
quarterdeck taking a last glance at "unhappy Ethio- 
pia," he indulged thoughts of home and said to his col- 
league : "We may now be thankful to God, and congrat- 
ulate each other that the labors and dangers of our mis- 
sion are past. The prospects are fair that we shall once 
more return to our dear native land, and see the faces 
of our beloved parents and friends." But this longing 
of his soul was not to be satisfied. Before leaving home 
the health of Mills had been slender, he being troubled 
with a distressing cough and bearing evidences of con- 
sumption. About two weeks after sailing from Sierra 

[51] 



Williams College and Missions 

Leone he took a severe cold which developed alarming 
symptoms. The disease worked rapidly at the last and 
his sufferings were increased by a painful and almost 
incessant hiccough. On the afternoon of June 16, 
1818, the end came, when without a groan or murmur 
he entered peacefully into rest. That night as the sun 
was going down, his body was committed to the sea. 
As the ashes of Wickliffe were thrown into a brook, 
and being thus conveyed into the main ocean, became 
an emblem of his doctrine which is now dispersed all 
the world over, so the dust of Mills rests in no one place 
on land, but in the ocean whose waves touch all those 
continents in which he took interest. 

In summing up the more marked characteristics of 
the man, one is struck, first of all, with his unbounded 
zeal. He possessed in a remarkable degree what the 
author of "Ecce Homo" called the "enthusiasm of hu- 
manity." With him the field was the world, and all 
nations were made of one blood. With him there was 
no antagonism between home and foreign missions. 
He had early planned to go to Asia; in his missionary 
tours in this country, his efforts embraced the red man 
and the black man as well as the whites; his acquaint- 
ance with Obookiah had aroused an interest in the isles 
of the sea ; his last service was rendered in the continent 
of Africa. 

Along with his zeal were combined tireless energy 
and a courage that knew no fear. Though not favored 
with robust health, he shrank from no toil and from no 
peril when the service of God called him. The diary 
which he kept during his tours in the West and South 
of this land reads like the doings of the apostolic age. 
His time was filled to the full with plans and the ex- 
ecution of plans for extending God's Kingdom. He 
was in labors abundant. 

This native zeal and energy had been thoroughly 

.... [52] 



Biographical Sketches 

sanctified by the Spirit of God, and from the time of 
his conversion, he was a man of the most devoted and 
unwavering piety. He was eminently a man of prayer. 
In all matters, both great and small, in times of doubt 
and uncertainty, his resort was ever the throne of grace. 
After the death of the son, the father, in remarking 
upon the wonderful success which had attended all the 
benevolent plans the son had devised, saw in this fact 
"abundant evidence that he was in the habit of commit- 
ting all his concerns to Providence, and seeking God's 
aid and guidance in every measure he pursued." He 
might have made the motto of his life the sentiment 
which Eliot wrote at the close of his Indian Grammar: 
"Prayers and pains, through faith in Christ Jesus, will 
do anything." 

While he thus had power to prevail with God, and 
while by his sanctified native energy he could accom- 
plish great things, having withal a rare discrimination 
in judging the character of men and selecting his agents 
to help carry out his plans, he was a man of unfeigned 
humility and modesty. He was really the first volun- 
teer to offer himself to go into a foreign field, and in the 
wonderful missionary movement of his day he was the 
Hamlet of the drama, yet when the advance-guard of 
missionaries was sent out and he, the real author of the 
whole movement, was left at home, there was no ex- 
pression of jealousy or even of disappointment. If by 
remaining here and in a more humble way firing the 
zeal of the home churches, he could advance the King- 
dom of God, he was content. His humility was partic- 
ularly manifest in his estimate of his own ability and 
character. Mr. Burgess, who was his companion in the 
mission to Africa, and to whom, more than to any other 
person, he revealed his inner life, has described an inter- 
view when Mills gave expression to his feelings of deep 
self-abasement, appearing to annihilate himself, as if 

[53] 



Williams College and Missions 

overwhelmed with abasing views of his own vileness. 
It was this sense of unworthiness and a disposition in- 
clined towards self-abasement that led him to cry out: 
"I many times fear that I shall yet be dashed in pieces 
as a vessel in which the Master has no pleasure." 

It was to be expected that a person of such humble- 
ness of mind, whose controlling passion was a yearning 
for the conversion of the heathen world, should be toler- 
ant of various forms of Christian worship. While not 
failing to discriminate between essentials and non-es- 
sentials in doctrines, he was far in advance of his age 
in exemplifying the spirit of Christian union. The min- 
isters of various Protestant denominations opened their 
pulpits to him as to a Christian minister, and when he 
was distributing Bibles in New Orleans he generally 
secured the cooperation of the Roman Catholic clergy. 

The following characterization of Mr. Mills by his 
college mate, Byram Green, is taken from the copy of a 
letter now preserved in the Williams College Library: 
"Mr. Mills in the symmetry of his form was finely pro- 
portioned, a little more than medium in height, with a 
dark skin, with black eyes and hair. He was courteous 
and easy in his manner, — he did not possess command- 
ing talents, but was highly esteemed by some and re- 
spected by all excepting the scoffers who were mute at 
that day. Professors of religion had too much influence 
at Williamstown and college to be laughed at if they 
behaved with usual decorum and civility. The influ- 
ence of Mills (so far as I can judge) grew out of his 
perseverance, his zeal and honest devotion to the Re- 
deemer's Kingdom. He frequently expressed the de- 
sire to preach the gospel to the heathen. " 

Such were some of the characteristics of the man 
whose career brought to Williams College one of its 
chiefest distinctions. Without his aiming at it or per- 
haps caring for it, he achieved for himself a fame that 

[54] 



Biographical Sketches 

will be enduring. On the missionary monument his 
name stands first in the list of the Men of the Haystack. 
Every year on Sunday afternoon of Commencement 
week, friends of missions gather around that monu- 
ment to recall the days of Mills and his associates, and 
to renew their zeal for missionary service. And when 
this monument shall have crumbled into dust, the influ- 
ence of those men will be felt wherever is being done 
the work of the American Board, whose field is the 
world. 

President Tucker finds the explanation of the lives 
of Mills and his associates in what he calls "the endow- 
ment of the sense of personal power." In this light, 
the examples of those lives ought to be a perpetual 
source of inspiration to all coming generations of Wil- 
liams students. The friends of the college might well 
make their own the words spoken by Dr. Hopkins at 
the Semi-centennial of the college in 1843: "Wherever, 
therefore, the history of American missions shall be 
known, this spot and this college must be looked to 
with interest; and we do not think that it was the de- 
sign of God that the moral effects of the association con- 
nected with it should be lost. Here may the words 
of Mills, 'Though you and I are very little beings, we 
must not rest satisfied until our influence is felt to the 
remotest corner of this ruined world,' always pervade 
the moral atmosphere. We would echo those words. 
We would make them the motto of those who come 
here.' , 

Of the more complete sketches of the life of Mills 
which have been published, there may be mentioned here 
the Memoirs by Gardiner Spring, D.D., New York, 
1820, of which an English edition was brought out in 
London, the same year, and a second American edition, 
edited by E. C. Bridgman and C. W. Allen in 1829. 
The most recent and complete work is entitled "Samuel 

[55] 



Williams College and Missions 

J. Mills, Missionary Pathfinder, Pioneer and Pro- 
moter," by Rev. Thomas C. Richards (Williams 1887). 
The published writings of Mills, aside from letters 
and diaries, concern the two missionary journeys made 
in this country, and are as follows: "Report to the 
Society for propagating the Gospel among the In- 
dians and others in North America; Schermerhorn and 
Mills" (1813) ; "Communications relative to the Prog- 
ress of Bible Societies in the United States, addressed 
to the Philadelphia Bible Society" (Philadelphia, 
1813) ; "A Correct View of that Part of the United 
States which lies West of the Alleghany Mountains, 
with respect to Religion and Morals" (Hartford, 
1814) ; "Report of a Missionary Tour through that 
Part of the United States which lies West of the Alle- 
ghany Mountains, performed under the Direction of 
the Massachusetts Missionary Society, by Samuel J. 
Mills and Daniel Smith" (Andover, 1815). 

James Richaeds, Jr., the only one of the so-called 
"Men of the Haystack" who became an ordained mis- 
sionary for a foreign field, was born at Abington, Mas- 
sachusetts, February 23, 1784. He was the son of 
James and Lydia (Shaw) Richards, and the grandson 
of Joseph and Sarah (Whitmarsh) Richards, and of 
Captain Ebenezer and Ann (Molson) Shaw. The 
family is descended from William Richards, who came 
from Wales probably to Plymouth before 1633, and 
ultimately settled in Weymouth, Massachusetts. 

James Richards was one of ten children, and be- 
longed to a family of superior mental qualities. The 
father, born May 31, 1757, was a farmer by occupa- 
tion, one of the earliest settlers in the town of Plain- 
field, Massachusetts, and saw service in the Revolution- 
ary Army. He is spoken of as an educated man of 
versatile talents, and throughout his active life he was 

[56] 






James Richards 
Francis Le Baron Robbins Harvey Loomis 

THREE OF THE MEN OF THE HAYSTACK 



Biographical Sketches 

prominent in church and town affairs. He was one of 
the first two deacons of the Congregational Church 
chosen November 15, 1792. He taught school winters 
for many years, and being a fine singer, he taught sing- 
ing in Plainfield and neighboring towns. He was 
Selectman for twenty-one years, and besides being 
Town Clerk and Justice of the Peace for some time he 
quite often represented the district and township in 
the General Court. His wife, Lydia Shaw, of Abing- 
ton, whom he married May 1, 1780, is spoken of as a 
most excellent woman. Besides James, Jr., the sub- 
ject of our sketch, two other sons were college grad- 
uates, viz.: William, who was graduated at Williams 
in 1819 and became a missionary to the Sandwich 
Islands, and Austin, who was graduated at Amherst 
in 1824 and became a minister. Two of his grandsons 
also received a college education. In the early youth 
of James, the parents removed to Plainfield. They 
were not in affluent circumstances, but were rich in faith 
and gave their children the best of pious instruction. 
At the age of thirteen, in a time of special religious in- 
terest, James became hopefully pious, though his ad- 
mission to the church was deferred for six years. He 
early cherished an ardent desire to become a minister 
of the gospel, but the needs of the family kept him on 
the farm till he was nearly twenty years of age, when 
he commenced his preparation for college under the 
tuition of his pastor, the Rev. Moses Hallock. Possi- 
bly the educational advantages afforded in Plainfield 
were one object the parents had in removing to that 
town. In those early days, when preparatory schools 
and theological seminaries were few, pastors not only 
frequently fitted youths for college, but often trained 
young men for the ministry. Of such ministerial teach- 
ers, Mr. Hallock became greatly distinguished. Soon 
after his settlement in Plainfield, in 1792, his salary 

[57] 



Williams College and Missions 

being inadequate to meet his necessary expenses, he 
began to receive students into his family, and contin- 
ued the work of preaching and teaching for more than 
thirty years. In many instances instruction was 
given gratuitously, and most of the students received 
board and tuition for about one dollar per week. Mr. 
Hallock taught in this way over 300 students, of whom 
132 entered college, and fifty became ministers of the 
gospel, — six of these becoming missionaries to the 
heathen. 

After two years of preparatory study under Mr. 
Hallock, James Richards entered Williams College, 
as a Sophomore, in the twenty-second year of his age. 
Though the college was then young and the expenses 
low, yet, owing to his slender means, Richards had to 
submit to many privations. His standing in college as 
a scholar was good, especially in the department of 
mathematics; but his chief est distinction was the fidel- 
ity and consistency with which he maintained his re- 
ligious profession and sought to promote the spiritual 
interests of the college; and that, too, in a time when 
the prevailing infidelity and irreligion made the life of 
the Christian no easy one. But it was a rare good for- 
tune and a source of no little inspiration and strength 
to be in college with Gordon Hall and to have Samuel 
J. Mills as a classmate. It was to Hall and Richards 
that Mills first made known his missionary plans, and 
Richards was one of the famous five who, beside the 
haystack, discussed Mills' project of a mission to the 
heathen, and who originated the American Foreign 
Missionary enterprise. In college he was a member 
of the Mills Theological Society and of the Philotech- 
nian Society. Immediately after graduation he en- 
tered the Theological Seminary at Andover, where he 
was active in diffusing a missionary spirit among the 
students, and was one of the members who originated 

.[58] 



Biographical Sketches 

the Memorial to the General Association of Massa- 
chusetts which led to the formation of the American 
Board. His name was originally signed to that Me- 
morial, but was withdrawn lest too many names might 
prejudice the application. The strength of his pur- 
pose, however, was not weakened, for he was ready to 
work his passage to some heathen land and there sup- 
port himself by his own labors. "Let me never," said 
he, "consider anything too great to suffer, or anything 
too dear to part with, when the glory of God and the 
salvation of men require it." 

In September, 1812, he finished his theological stud- 
ies and was licensed to preach. Having been accepted 
by the American Board as a candidate for missionary 
service, he went in November to Philadelphia, where 
he spent two years in the study of medicine, as an es- 
sential part of his missionary education. Here he 
often preached to destitute congregations, being also 
employed, a part of the time, as a missionary in the 
suburbs of the city. 

He finished his missionary training in 1814, but on 
account of the war then existing with Great Britain, 
the Board could not send him forth. He accordingly 
accepted an invitation to preach for a time to a small 
congregation in Deering, New Hampshire, where his 
labors were successful in restoring harmony to a divided 
people and in bringing many to the saving knowledge 
of Divine truth. On May 31, 1815, he was married to 
Sarah Bardwell of Goshen, Massachusetts, and on the 
21st of June, 1815, he was ordained at Newburyport, 
Massachusetts, in company with Messrs. Warren, 
Mills, Meigs, Poor, and Bardwell, — the sermon on the 
occasion being preached by Rev. Dr. Samuel Worces- 
ter of Salem, Massachusetts. Richards, Warren, Meigs, 
Bardwell, and Poor, all of them married except 
Mr. Warren, sailed from Newburyport for Ceylon, 

[59] 



Williams College and Missions 

October 23. This constituted the second mission 
of the Board. On leaving his native land, Mr. Rich- 
ards said: "I have been waiting with anxiety almost 
eight years for an opportunity to go and preach Christ 
among the heathen. I have often wept at the long 
delay. But the day on which I now bid farewell to 
my native land is the happiest day of my life." 

After a voyage of five months the missionaries were 
safely landed at Colombo. Ceylon had been suggested 
to the Board as a favorable place for a mission by Mr. 
Newell, who had found refuge there for a time when 
the British authorities were endeavoring to keep him 
and his colleagues from the continent of India. Mr. 
Richards and his associates were received most cordially 
by the Government and the English missionaries, and 
the mission was attended by prosperity. The island of 
Ceylon, with its population of about 1,000,000, was a 
field of great importance in itself, but its importance 
to the Board was greatly increased by the fact that 
the Tamil people in the Jaffna district are identical in 
race, language, and religion with a large population in 
the adjacent parts of the continent. The Government 
assigned the missionaries stations in this district at Tel- 
lippallai (Tillipalli) and Batticotta, Mr. Richards be- 
ing located at the latter place. Ceylon had an impor- 
tant commerce in ancient times, and in the sixth cen- 
tury large numbers of Christian merchants from Per- 
sia resided there. After being lost to the knowledge 
of Europe through the dark ages, the Portuguese, in 
1505, again discovered the island and subsequently 
gained extensive possessions on the coast, and in 1602 
the Dutch began to acquire possessions there, while the 
English finally took possession of the whole island in 
1815. It is not known when Christianity was first in- 
troduced into Ceylon, but when Xavier, the Jesuit 
"Apostle of India," visited the island in the sixteenth 

[60] 



Biographical Sketches 

century, it is said that he found there 20,000 native 
Christians. Probably, as the Portuguese assert, they 
were but little better than heathen. The Portuguese 
built many churches there, and though many which had 
fallen into decay were rebuilt by the Dutch, yet on the 
whole, as commerce was the chief object of this people, 
and as the English allowed the free exercise of all re- 
ligions, Christianity, of any kind, under the Dutch and 
English rule, became nearly extinct. 

Near Batticotta, where Messrs. Richards and Meigs 
were stationed, were the ruins of a fine church and also 
of a dwelling house, which could be repaired and used 
for the mission. Until the buildings should be in read- 
iness, Mr. Richards began his studies in Jaffnapatam, 
where a temporary residence was obtained. He was, 
however, greatly embarrassed in the prosecution of his 
work by a severe inflammation of the eyes, which in- 
capacitated him for study. The means used for the 
eyes proved unfavorable to his general health and, 
probably, brought on the pulmonary disease which fi- 
nally ended his life. But though his studies were inter- 
rupted he was enabled to preach occasionally to the 
natives through an interpreter, and made himself useful 
to the mission by his medical knowledge. Being com- 
pelled to cease from all kinds of labor in 1817, he found 
some relief by a stay of a few months at Colombo ; but 
subsequently it was thought desirable that he and one 
of his colleagues, Mr. Warren, who was also in poor 
health, should go to the Cape of Good Hope. They 
were granted free passage in a government transport, 
and, at first, the weather being favorable, their health 
improved. But when in sight of land they were driven 
out to sea by boisterous weather, and after being ex- 
posed for a fortnight to the fury of the tempests, they 
arrived at Cape Town with severe colds and exhausted 
strength. Mr. Warren survived the voyage but a few 

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Williams College and Missions 

weeks, dying August 11. It was thought by some that 
he had been associated with Richards, Mills, and Hall 
in Williams College, with them had consecrated him- 
self to the work of foreign missions, and had taken a 
dismission to Middlebury College for the purpose of 
kindling there a zeal for the cause of missions. Rich- 
ards and Warren had enjoyed the happiness of labor- 
ing together for a brief time in the same foreign field. 
Warren was called from this life in South Africa but 
a few weeks after Mills, who died soon after leaving the 
Dark Continent for America. 

For some time the health of Mr. Richards showed 
improvement at the Cape, but a hemorrhage so reduced 
his strength that he entirely lost his voice. He returned 
to Jaffnapatam in November, and became so exhausted 
by the part of the journey which was by land, that he 
and his brethren supposed he was near to death, but in 
the following summer he had so far recovered as to be 
able to visit the mission schools and occasionally to im- 
part religious instruction through an interpreter. For 
a year more he was enabled to render himself highly use- 
ful to the mission by his active labors and wise counsels. 
Overtasking his powers, however, particularly by the 
fatigue of medical attendance which devolved much on 
him, he fell again into a decline from which he was des- 
tined never to recover. But while his period of service 
was drawing to a close he had the satisfaction of seeing 
some of the success of the mission, — the whole number 
of native converts in church fellowship at the close of 
the year 1821 being fifteen, among these six pupils in 
the girls' boarding-school. He continued to decline till 
near the end of June, when began a period of acute suf- 
ferings which he endured to the end, not only patiently, 
but even with gratitude. His sufferings seemed to 
increase his mental activity, while his faith became 
stronger and his views of the divine character higher and 

[62] 



Biographical Sketches 

more consoling. When he was near the end he called for 
his only son, James, and taking him by the hand, said : 
"My son, your papa is dying. He will very soon be 
dead. Thou, my son, remember these things: Be a 
good boy; obey your mamma; and love Jesus Christ. 
Now remember these, my son." Soon after he became 
speechless and in a few moments more fell asleep. He 
died August 3, 1822, in the thirty-ninth year of his age. 
A suitable monument erected at his grave bears an 
inscription in English and also one in Tamil. The 
English inscription is as follows: 

"In memory of 

The Rev. James Richards, A.M. 

American Missionary 

Who died August 3, 1822; 

Aged 38 years. 

One of the first projectors of American Missions, 

He gave himself first to Christ, 

And then to the Heathen. 

A Physician both to the soul and body. 

He was 

In health, laborious, 

In sickness, patient, 

In death, triumphant; 

He is not, for God took him." 

Rev, Dr. Daniel Poor, who was associated with Mr. 
Richards in the mission at Ceylon, and who was with 
him in his last hours, thus describes him: "In regard 
to his personal appearance, Mr. Richards may have 
been about five feet eight inches in height ; but being of 
a slender frame, or rather the reverse of being a corpu- 
lent man, he was in appearance rather tall. He was of 
a sandy complexion, and his countenance was a fair in- 

[63] 



Williams College and Missions 

dex to the man — though cheerful, yet mild, grave, and 
prepossessing. His manner of preaching was plain, 
didactic, and pointed, evincing an earnest and devoted 
spirit rather than very remarkable talents. In this 
connection, however, it is to be remembered that he at- 
tained to a good degree of respectability in two profes- 
sions, theological and medical, in the time usually 
allotted to one." 

Though, on account of his ill health, he was pre- 
vented from preaching to any great extent, yet he used 
his strength to its utmost, and in this respect he may be 
called a laborious missionary. His patience under suf- 
fering, his faith amid trials, his habitual cheerfulness 
and resignation to the divine will under affliction, his 
lively interest in every thing that related to the cause of 
Christ ; — these and many other graces of a kindred na- 
ture, reflect honor upon himself and upon the cause to 
which he was devoted. His associates spoke of his 
great usefulness as a friend and counsellor, as a com- 
panion and fellow laborer, and regarded the example of 
his life as a rich legacy. 

The following stanza from a poem composed by 
William Tappan on the occasion of the death of Mr. 
Richards may fittingly find a place here : 

"Isle of the beauteous Indian deep! 
Land of the goalless pagan's shrine! 
Weep, in your groves of odor weep, ■ 

Sigh mid the olive and the vine; 

Haste, Ceylonese! and bring 

Your tribute to the dead; 

Your choicest chaplets fling 

Upon the martyr's bed." 

Mr. Richards received the degree of Master of 
Arts from his Alma Mater, and Doctor of Medicine 
from the University of Pennsylvania. 

He was married on May 31, 1815, to Sarah Bard- 

[64] 



Biographical Sketches 

well of Goshen, Massachusetts, a sister of Rev. Hora- 
tio Bard well, D.D., sometime a missionary in India. 
She married for her second husband Rev. Joseph 
Knight, an English missionary, in Southern India, Sep- 
tember 17, 1823, and died at Nellore, April 26, 1825. 
There were born to Mr. Richards two children. 
Three grandchildren are now living: Miss Clara Rich- 
ards Boynton; Miss Emily Symmes Richards; and 
James Symmes Richards. 



CLASS OF 1810 

Luther Rice, son of Captain Amos and Sara Rice, 
was born in Northboro, Worcester County, Massachu- 
setts, March 25, 1783. The grandfather, Jacob Rice, 
was one of the early settlers of the town. The father 
had engaged in the struggles of the Revolutionary War 
and had essentially aided in securing the independence 
of the United States. He was a man of strong intel- 
lect, but with a limited education, and habits acquired 
in camp life seemed to have been unfavorable to his fu- 
ture usefulness, although he was nominally connected 
with the Congregational Church. 

The mother of Luther is described as an extraordi- 
nary woman. She had a vigorous and clear mind, 
which, with the advantages of a common school educa- 
tion, her subsequent application had greatly improved. 
She took great pains to impart religious knowledge to 
the son, who, from earliest childhood, was made famil- 
iar with the Scriptures, and was regularly taught por- 
tions of the Westminster Catechism. These influences, 
combined with those of a pious aunt, produced serious 
impressions in the boy when not more than four years 
of age. These early advantages he regarded as among 
the most efficient instrumentalities ordered of God in 
his subsequent religious experiences and conversion. 

[65] 



Williams College and Missions 

It was in his eighteenth year that he professed religion, 
and his union with the church took place March 14, 
1802. 

As to his natural characteristics, it is said that as a 
child he was quick in his perceptions, docile in spirit, 
and amiable in manners. In school he was greatly be- 
loved by his classmates, and gave promise of future 
greatness by his aptitude and diligence in study. It 
was, however, two or three years from the time he 
joined the church that he began to think of devoting 
himself to the Christian ministry. Up to this time he 
had labored on the farm and had fondly desired to re- 
main there caring for his parents while they should 
live. The opposition of the father to the son's active 
Christian life was the immediate occasion of his change 
of plans. The idea of obtaining a college education 
having been suggested to him by a minister of a neigh- 
boring town, he entered Leicester Academy, where he 
spent three years in pursuing his preparatory studies. 
To assist in defraying his expenses, he devoted some 
time in teaching a day school at Paxton, Massachusetts, 
and conducting a singing class at night. He joined 
the Sophomore class in Williams in October, 1807, de- 
fraying a part of his college expenses by teaching school 
in vacation. He was fortunate in having as college 
mates Gordon Hall, Samuel J. Mills, and James Rich- 
ards. He was a member of the Philotechnian Society 
and of the Mills Theological Society. His college 
course was marked by diligence and success in study, by 
uniform activity in the Lord's service, and by growth 
in Christian character. The desire which he felt for the 
salvation of sinners before he left his father's house was 
cherished throughout his college course. In a letter 
written to his brother soon after graduation he advo- 
cated the claims of the Massachusetts Home Mission- 
ary Society, having in mind the object of collecting 

[66] 



Biographical Sketches 

funds for the moral and spiritual improvement of the 
Indians of our country. His success as a student is 
evidenced by his having a part in the Commencement 
exercises, when he delivered a poem, his subject being 
"On Man." In the middle of his Senior year, by the 
concurrence and recommendation of the president of 
the college, he had joined the class at Andover Theo- 
logical Seminary which had recently been established. 
A few weeks after graduation from college he was li- 
censed to preach by the Mountain Association, Berk- 
shire County, Massachusetts. 

Rice had been one of the original five signers of the 
Constitution of the Society of "Brethren," which had 
been formed at Williams, and when the society was in- 
troduced into the seminary the first item in the book of 
records, now preserved in the library at Andover, notes 
the election of Rice as President. When, in 1911, there 
was organized in the seminary the "Society of Inquiry 
on the Subject of Missions," Rice became one of the 
Prudential Committee. And though his name was 
left off, lest the number of names should prejudice their 
cause, he was one of the six who prepared for the Gen- 
eral Association of Massachusetts the petition which re- 
sulted in the formation of the American Board. On 
February 6, 1812, he was one of the five, the others be- 
ing Hall, Judson, Newell, and Nott, who were ordained 
at Salem as the first missionaries of the new Board. A 
few days later, February 18, 1812, Mr. Rice, with Mr. 
Hall and Mr. and Mrs. Nott, sailed from Philadelphia 
for Calcutta; while Messrs. Judson and Newell, with 
their wives, sailed from Salem for the same port. It 
was on this long voyage, of six months, across the ocean 
that Messrs. Rice and Judson, though in different ves- 
sels, on the reexamination of the subject of baptism, 
reached the conviction that the views of the Baptists 
were scriptural. They were subsequently baptized, 

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Williams College and Missions 

though at different times and in different places, Mr. 
Rice being baptized on November 1, 1812, in the chapel 
at Serampur by the Rev. William Ward of the Eng- 
lish Baptist Mission, while Mr. and Mrs. Judson had 
been baptized on the first Lord's day in September of 
the same year by Dr. Carey. Though no one could im- 
pugn the motives of the two brethren for their action, 
yet this change of views was a "trying event" to the 
other missionaries. Messrs. Rice and Judson promptly 
wrote of their decision to the Corresponding Secretary 
and withdrew themselves from under the instructions of 
the Board. 

Among the first trials they were called to endure in 
the foreign field was the stern opposition of the English 
authorities in Calcutta. At first a peremptory order 
was issued that the missionaries should be sent back to 
America. After various delays it was finally decided 
to allow them to go to the Isle of France. On arriv- 
ing there it was decided that Mr. Rice should return to 
this country, partly on account of his declining health, 
but especially for the purpose of arousing the Baptist 
churches to an effort in behalf of the pagan nations. 
One object being to reconnoiter South America as a 
missionary field, he sailed in March, 1813, for St. Sal- 
vador, where he arrived on the 4th of May. Remain- 
ing here something over two months, he sailed for New 
York July 17. On his arrival, in September, he im- 
mediately addressed himself to the object of his mission 
with great zeal, and with a good degree of success. 
Numerous missionary societies were formed chiefly by 
his individual efforts, and in the spring of 1814 was or- 
ganized the "Baptist Board of Foreign Missions for 
the United States." Subsequently the constitution was 
so changed as to provide for the establishment of a 
classical and theological seminary for the education 
of young men, especially for the ministry. While 

[68] 



Biographical Sketches 

Messrs. Rice and Judson were appointed by the 
Triennial Convention as their missionaries, it was 
deemed expedient that Mr. Rice should remain in the 
United States to give increased efficiency to the action 
of the churches in favor of the mission. He had already 
been engaged in this work for nearly a year, during 
which time he had organized twenty-five new mission- 
ary societies, besides directing to foreign missions the 
efforts and contributions of many societies which had 
existed before. The sort of work in which he had be- 
come engaged and which he was destined to follow 
through the rest of his life, involved travelling many 
thousand miles, mostly through the South. Some idea 
of the multiplied privations and toils of Mr. Rice in 
this kind of work may be gained from a letter written 
to his brother, dated October 29, 1816. "The 25th of 
July," he writes, "I left Philadelphia, and arrived in 
Warrenton, North Carolina, on the evening of Friday, 
2nd August, at least 370 miles. After attending the 
North Carolina general meeting of correspondence, 
near that place, I took stage on the night of Monday, 
about midnight, having been occupied after meeting, 
till that hour, in writing, without going to bed, and 
about two o'clock, on Wednesday morning, arrived 
again in Richmond, Virginia, more than 100 miles from 
Warrenton. In the evening of the same day, preached 
in Richmond, wrote twenty-one letters on Thursday, 
besides doing some other necessary business, and at 
three o'clock, on Friday morning, left that city, and 
preached in the evening of the same day in Goochland 
County, forty miles from Richmond. At a yearly 
meeting, same place, preached again on Saturday at 
twelve o'clock, and on the Sabbath, that is, the next day, 
was with the Appomattox Association; preaching in 
Prince Edward County, about sixty miles from where 
I was in Goochland County." In closing his report for 

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Williams College and Missions 

1817, he writes: "Since the date of my letter of the 
19th of June, 1816, I have travelled 6600 miles in pop- 
ulous and in dreary portions of country — through wil- 
derness and over rivers — across mountains and valleys 
— in heat and cold — by day and by night — in weariness 
and painfulness, and fastings, and loneliness; but not 
a moment has been lost for want of health; no painful 
calamity has fallen to my lot; no peril has closed upon 
me ; nor has fear been permitted to prey on my spirits ; 
nor even inquietude to disturb my peace." 

About this time, however, in addition to the prose- 
cution of his regular agency, he assumed duties and re- 
sponsibilities which brought upon him serious illness 
and, for a time, cast a shadow upon his reputation. 
For some time he, with other prominent men in the 
denomination, had felt the need of improving the in- 
tellectual standing of the Baptist ministry, and a school 
to further this object had been established in Philadel- 
phia. It was owing largely to his influence that the 
"General Missionary Convention of the Baptist De- 
nominations in the United States," in 1820, decided to 
establish in Washington a college and theological in- 
stitution. This institution became Columbian College, 
of which Mr. Rice became the Treasurer and Financial 
Agent. It was in discharge of his duties at the col- 
lege that his affairs became involved in inextricable con- 
fusion and he was subjected to the severest criticism. 
Very much might be written about this phase of Mr. 
Bice's life, but it may be said in brief that while he was 
guilty of error, the error was one of judgment and not 
such as to impugn the integrity of his motives. He 
was not sufficiently cautious in the pecuniary manage- 
ment of the institution and was too sanguine in the man- 
ner of conducting his agency in its behalf. It is the 
judgment of his biographer that as a financier Mr. Rice 
certainly did not excel, and that he ought to have had 

[70] 



Biographical Sketches 

nothing to do with the management of the institution. 
Professor William Gamwell, in his "History of Amer- 
ican Baptist Missions," has called attention to the pe- 
culiar fault in Mr. Rice's character, while giving high 
appreciation to the greatness of the work accomplished 
by him. Professor Gamwell writes of him that he 
"had every quality essential to the discharge of a great 
executive office, excepting discretion alone, — that one 
without which knowledge and piety, and zeal the most 
disinterested, are clearly unavailing. . . . Yet, not- 
withstanding his imperfections and errors — and these 
had their origin in a too ardent and unrestrained imagi- 
nation — his name deserves to be enrolled among the 
ablest and most devoted of the founders of our Ameri- 
can missions, for he accomplished a work which no one 
of his contemporaries could have possibly achieved." 

Mr. Rice resigned as general agent and treasurer of 
the institution, though he continued to collect funds for 
it without being expected to exercise any control in their 
disbursement. In the midst of all the painful disap- 
pointments in regard to the college, Mr. Rice retained 
his confidence that its rescue would be effected. To this 
rescue he devoted the most of his energies for the re- 
mainder of his life. In the midst of the embarrassments 
which he shared with the college, he could write a friend : 
"The proper collegiate education of young ministers is, 
w r ith me, the essential and paramount object of all my 
exertions." It is pleasing to relate that after the ex- 
citement caused by the embarrassments of the college 
had passed away, a more kindly feeling towards Mr. 
Rice began to appear, and many who had harshly criti- 
cized him viewed him with more friendly feelings, being 
touched by the humility manifest in his letters, which al- 
ways abounded in expressions of tenderness and Chris- 
tian love. 

During the last years of his life Mr. Rice suffered 

L71] 



Williams College and Missions 

much from painful disease. He had never fully recov- 
ered from the shock his constitution received during his 
residence in India, where he suffered with almost con- 
tinuous affections of the liver. With this predisposi- 
tion to disease, the almost unexampled toils which he 
endured in the prosecution of his mission and college 
agencies contributed to the early breaking down of his 
physical powers. A person less devoted and of less he- 
roic mould could not have endured the long journeys he 
took, in which he was subject to hunger and cold, to 
sleepless nights, and perpetual weariness. During 
these years of physical weakness, in addition to his ef- 
forts in raising money for the college, he was much of 
the time engaged in preaching, and in various ways was 
laboring for the advancement of the Baptist cause in 
Washington, where he sought to bring about a revival 
of pure and undefiled religion. 

Although he had been much of an invalid for many 
months, his final sickness came suddenly when he was 
on a journey to the South. He died after a short ill- 
ness in Edgefield District, South Carolina, on the 25th 
of September, 1846. He was buried near Pine Pleas- 
ant Baptist Meeting House. A large marble slab was 
placed over his grave by the South Carolina Baptist 
Convention. The following is part of the memorial 
inscription : 

"Luther Bice 

With a portly person and commanding presence, 

Combined a strong and brilliant intellect. 

As a theologian he was orthodox; 
A scholar, his education was liberal. 

He was an eloquent and powerful preacher; 
A self-denying and indefatigable philanthropist. 

His frailties with his dust are entombed ; 
And, upon the walls of Zion, his virtues engraven." 

[72] 



Biographical Sketches 

It is, of course, idle to speculate, as some have done, 
whether Mr. Rice might not have spent a more useful 
life had he returned to the missionary service in India, 
as he at one time planned and as his friend, Judson, 
strongly urged him to do. As it was, he accomplished 
a great work for the Baptist denomination in America, 
and for the cause of foreign missions. Probably no 
man of his time did so much as he did to unify the de- 
nomination, to inspire it with zeal for mission work, and 
to improve the intellectual standing of its ministry. 
His success in these respects was due largely to his 
ability as a speaker. He was particularly eminent 
as a preacher. He was disposed to emphasize rather 
strongly, perhaps, the doctrines of divine decrees, espe- 
cially that of divine sovereignty. He was especially fa- 
miliar with the Scriptures, it being his plan to read the 
Bible through, systematically, once a year, and so his 
discourses were largely scriptural. His sermons, though 
studied, were not written, and though he rode habitu- 
ally from place to place, he did not repeat the same ser- 
mons. As a speaker he was natural, earnest, and self- 
possessed. It was said of him that his whole demeanor 
in the pulpit was that of an honest man and a sincere 
Christian. Dr. James B. Taylor, his biographer, wrote 
of him: "As a preacher of righteousness he has been 
rarely excelled. By nature he was endowed with many 
of the essential attributes of an effective speaker. His 
voice was clear and melodious. His appearance was 
highly prepossessing. Above the ordinary height, with 
a robust and perfectly erect form, there was at once 
produced on the mind of the beholder a most favorable 
impression. The moment he began to speak, attention 
was aroused, and uniformly the interest thus awakened 
was kept up throughout the service. The clearness of 
his conception, the accuracy and force of his language, 
and the solemn dignity of his manner, all contributed to 

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Williams College and Missions 

render him one of the most interesting public speakers 
of our land." Another who knew him intimately also 
wrote: "How vividly does this attempt to recall one I 
so much revered, bring his person, and voice, and whole 
manner and bearing before my mind! I seem to see 
him rising in the pulpit, not less than six feet in height 
— rather portly but not corpulent, — his small but 
pleasant eyes passing over the assembly, as with great 
deliberation, and perfect self-possession, and a voice 
reaching distinctly the remotest hearer, he proceeds 
to illustrate and impress his subject, not unfre- 
quently making appeals, characterized by a subduing 
pathos." 

That he was recognized as a man of superior talent 
was evidenced by the fact that in 1815 he was elected to 
the presidency of Transylvania University, Kentucky, 
and in 1832 to the presidency of Georgetown College, 
in the same state. By his refusal of both of these posi- 
tions was exhibited a striking characteristic of the man, 
his disinterestedness. Other marked traits were his 
humility and his spirit of forgiveness which he showed 
even towards his bitterest enemies. These characteris- 
tics accord perfectly with his reputation as a man of 
prayer. In his diary, he once wrote: "My seasons of 
prayer are seven in twenty- four hours; at day-break, 
midday, evening twilight, bedtime, between bedtime 
and day-break, private; before breakfast and after sup- 
per, in the family. 

Mr. Rice was never married. It is not known 
that, besides letters, he left any published writings. 
It is said that during his voyage from India 
to this country, he prepared a treatise on the 
subject of baptism, in a series of letters to his 
brother. 

A memoir of him was prepared by James B. Taylor, 
and published in Baltimore in 1840. 

[74] 



Biographical Sketches 

John Seward, one of the signers of the Constitu- 
tion of the first Foreign Missionary Society formed in 
this country, was a native of Granville, Massachusetts, 
where he was born January 11, 1784. He was a son of 
John Seward, who was, possibly, one of the original 
settlers of the town. He fitted for college under the 
tuition of Rev. Timothy Mather Cooley, D.D. (Yale 
1792), and entered college in the second term of Soph- 
omore year. Among his classmates were Justin Ed- 
wards, Daniel Kellogg, and Luther Rice. In college 
he was a member of the Philotechnian Society. 

Besides Mr. Seward, the other original signers of 
the Constitution of this Foreign Missionary Society, 
called the "Brethren," were Samuel J. Mills, Ezra 
Fisk, who was the first President of the Society, James 
Richards, and Luther Rice. One of the articles of the 
Constitution enjoined the exercise of the utmost care 
in admitting new members, and no one was to be ad- 
mitted who was under any engagement of any kind 
which should be incompatible with going on a mission 
to the heathen. Mills seems to have been particularly 
strenuous about this requirement, and after he went to 
Andover, wrote an urgent letter about it to Seward. 
The following extract is from that letter, which is one 
of two autograph letters of Mills preserved in the col- 
lege library. The letter is dated Divinity College, An- 
dover, March 20, 1810. Mills had quoted one of the 
commands of the Society of Illuminati, and then con- 
tinued: "Let us be more cautious in the admission of 
members than ever the Illuminati. We shall do well to 
examine their every look, their every action, above all 
see that they are possessed of ardent piety. Let them 
take hold, as it were, of the Angel of the Covenant. 
Let their souls go out to God in fervent supplications 
that the heathen might be given to Jesus Christ as an 
inheritance." 

[75] 



Williams College and Missions 

After graduation Seward studied theology with 
Rev. Ebenezer Porter, D.D. (Dartmouth 1792), of 
Washington, Connecticut. He was licensed to preach 
at New Preston, Connecticut, June 5, 1811. Receiv- 
ing a commission to labor as a missionary on the West- 
ern Reserve, he was ordained as an evangelist by the 
Hartford North Connecticut Association, in West 
Hartford, September 25, 1811. On the 28th of the 
same month he started for Ohio on horseback, and after 
a journey of three weeks reached Conneaut, where he 
spent his first Sabbath on the field of his future labors. 
On August 5, 1812, he was installed pastor of an in- 
fant church in Aurora, Portage County, Ohio, where 
he remained in a happy and successful ministry, till 
1884. While James Richards and Luther Rice, two 
other signers of the Constitution of the first Foreign 
Missionary Society, became foreign missionaries, Sew- 
ard was advised to engage in home missionary work, 
which at that time called for about as much heroism as 
the foreign field does to-day. A large part of his 
earlier ministry was devoted to missionary labor, in all 
parts of the Western Reserve, where he became a de- 
voted and successful home missionary. In the spring 
of 1844, he was dismissed, at his own request, from the 
church in Aurora, and at once commenced preaching in 
Solon, Cuyahoga County, New York, where he was 
installed October 7, 1845. After laboring here with 
acceptance for about fifteen years, he retired from the 
ministry, and spent the remainder of his life at Tall- 
madge, Ohio, where he died January 24, 1873, aged 89. 

CLASS OF 1812 
Alfred Wright, son of Josiah and Temperance 
Wright, was born in Columbia, Tolland County, Con- 
necticut, March 1, 1788. Both of the parents were pro- 
fessors of religion. With a family of eleven children, 

[76] 



Biographical Sketches 

the father, who had only a small estate, was not able to 
support the son at school, and employed him on the 
farm till he was about seventeen years of age. Al- 
though in feeble health, with his father's consent he re- 
solved to obtain an education, mainly by his own efforts. 
He fitted for college mostly at Bacon Academy, in Col- 
chester, Connecticut, defraying his expenses by occa- 
sionally teaching. He entered college in an advanced 
class in May, 1810. He became a member of the Phil- 
otechnian Society, and of the Mills Theological Society. 
It was his original intention to study medicine, but 
being hopefully converted during a revival in col- 
lege in the spring of 1812, he determined to study 
theology. After graduation he was for some time prin- 
cipal of the academy in Hadley, Massachusetts, and 
while there he united with the church under the care of 
the Rev. Dr. Woodbridge. In November, 1813, he en- 
tered the theological seminary at Andover, and there 
he felt called to engage in the work of missions. In the 
fall of 1814 he accepted the appointment of tutor in his 
Alma Mater, hoping to have much leisure for the study 
of languages and thus to become better fitted for his 
duties as a missionary. Soon after entering upon the 
duties of the tutorship, his health completely failed, and 
in 1815 he went to Raleigh, North Carolina, where he 
spent three years. His health being partially restored, 
he engaged as principal of a female academy, 1817-19, 
and at the same time did a good deal to improve the 
condition of the negroes. 

On December 17, 1819, he was ordained as an evan- 
gelist, in Charleston, South Carolina, in company with 
Mr. Jonas King (Williams 1816), and soon after he 
received an appointment from the American Board to 
labor as a missionary among the Choctaw Indians. In 
the spring of 1820 he returned to New England, and, 
having visited his old home on May 10, he took leave of 

[77] 



Williams College and Missions 

the Corresponding Secretary of the Board at Salem, 
Massachusetts, and proceeded on horseback, circuitous- 
ly, for the purposes of agency, through New York, 
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, to 
Eliot, where he arrived in December, to assist Rev. Mr. 
Kingsbury in the Choctaw Mission. He labored suc- 
cessively at the stations of Eliot, Mayhew, and Goshen, 
till 1831, when the missionary operations were inter- 
rupted by the removal of the Indians to their new coun- 
try, which lay between the Arkansas and Red rivers, 
and west of the territory of Arkansas. 

He now revisited New England and remained north 
during the summer, and returning to the South in De- 
cember, he proceeded, with his associate, Mr. Loring 
S. Williams, to the new Choctaw territory, to com- 
mence a mission there. He reached Little Rock, Feb- 
ruary 18, 1832, where he was detained by a severe illness 
till late in August, when he proceeded to his field of 
labor. The new station which he occupied here he 
named Wheelock, in memory of the president of Dart- 
mouth College. He at once established a church of 
thirty-seven members, and soon organized Sunday and 
day schools. 

For more than thirty years he labored, with almost 
unremitting success, among the Choctaws, until his 
death at Wheelock, Arkansas, March 31, 1853. He es- 
tablished several churches and numerous schools, some- 
times having as many as six different preaching places, 
and gathering in the schools as many as 400 pupils. 
In a boarding school which he established, the studies 
were of quite advanced grade. As he was possessed of 
considerable medical knowledge, his labors were greatly 
increased by prescribing for the sick. 

He also rendered an important service to the 
mission by his publication of books in the Choctaw 
language, As early as 1827 he commenced the prepara- 

[78] 



Biographical Sketches 

tion of these books, which were afterward published, — 
a "Choctaw Instructor, " "Selections from the Gospels 
of Luke and John," and a translation of the history 
of Joseph. Subsequently he translated some of the 
books of the Old Testament and Gallaudet's "Sacred 
Biography." 

His letters published in the Missionary Herald 
speak repeatedly of revivals and additions to the church. 
In the Herald for 1828 he gave a long and most inter- 
esting account of the religious opinions and traditions 
of the Choctaws. 

These multifarious and taxing labors were per- 
formed by him while suffering from a complication of 
diseases. It was said of him that he was "never with- 
out pain, and for twenty years unable to walk more 
than a few rods, or raise with his hands more than a 
few pounds' weight without bringing on severe distress, 
from heart disease." As an illustration of his marked 
fidelity to duty, it was told of him that "after a long 
day's ride of ten hours, staying at a miserable hut, wea- 
ried and sick, he would call all the family together, read 
a chapter in the Bible by firelight, sing a hymn from 
memory, and offer a prayer." Well might it be said 
of him that few ministers of Christ have labored more 
faithfully or successfully. He was eminently a man 
of prayer, and herein lay the secret of his success. 

A sermon commemorative of the character and la- 
bors of Mr. Wright was preached by his colleague, Rev. 
Mr. Kingsbury, from the text, "He being dead, yet 
speaketh." After speaking of Mr. Wright as a man 
of prayer and of his piety as of a high order, Mr. Kings- 
bury enumerated as the distinguishing traits of his 
character self-government, modesty, kindness of man- 
ner, and dignity of deportment, saying, in addition, 
that he spent his life, not in seeking his own advantage, 
but in doing good to others. 

[79] 



Williams College and Missions 

Mr. Wright was married at Charleston, South Car- 
olina, March 23, 1825, to Miss Harriet Bunce, daugh- 
ter of Jared Bunce, Esq., of Philadelphia. Mrs. 
Wright survived her husband, and continued work in 
the mission until June 5, 1855, when she was released 
from the services of the Board. She died at Lake City, 
Florida, November, 1862. 



CLASS OF 1813 

Elisha Pope Swift was born in Williamstown, 
Massachusetts, August 12, 1792. He was the son of 
Rev. Seth and Lucy (Elliot) Swift, and grandson of 
Jireh and Abigail Swift, and of Nathan and Clarina 
Elliot, of Kent, Connecticut. On his mother's side his 
great-grandfather was Rev. Jared Eliot (Yale 1706), 
and his great-grandmother was a sister of Governor 
Matthew Griswold of Connecticut. His mother was 
a lineal descendant of the famous Puritan missionary, 
Rev. John Eliot. His uncle, Rev. Job Swift, was 
graduated at Yale in 1765, was a trustee of Dartmouth 
College from 1788 to 1801, of Williams College from 
1794 to 1802, and of Middlebury College from 1802 
until his death, and received the honorary degree of 
Doctor of Divinity from Williams in 1803. Rev. 
Seth Swift, the father of the subject of this sketch, was 
graduated at Yale in 1774, and on May 26, 1779, 
was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church in 
Williamstown, Massachusetts, which position he held 
for a period of nearly twenty-eight years, until the time 
of his death in 1807. He was one of the original trus- 
tees of Williams College and held this office until his 
death. The inscription on his gravestone describes him 
as "possessing an amiable temper, strong mental 
powers, and all the Christian virtues." Ebenezer Kel- 
logg (Yale 1810), who was Professor of Ancient Lan- 

[80] 



Biographical Sketches 

guages in Williams from 1815 to 1844, describes him as 
"a little above the middle stature, with a strong frame, 
and large features ; not at all studious of the graces of 
dress, manners or conversation, warm and open in his 
temper, evangelical in his religious views, serious in the 
general tone of his intercourse with his people, zealous 
in the labors of the ministry, decided in his opinions, and 
prudent and energetic in his measures." Two of his sons 
were graduated here, in 1804 and 1813, respectively, 
and became ministers of the gospel. One daughter 
married Rev. Sylvester Selden (Williams 1807). 

Elisha Pope Swift entered college as a Sophomore 
and had among his classmates William Cullen Bryant 
and Charles Frederic Sedgwick. He was a member of 
the Mills Theological Society, and of the Philotechnian 
Society, of which he was one of the presidents. At 
graduation he held a disputation with his classmate, 
Martin L. Stow, on the question, "Have the Arts and 
Sciences contributed more than the Christian Religion 
to the Cause of Civil Liberty?" 

In July of his Senior year he made a profession of 
religion at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and united with 
the church of which his brother, Rev. Ephraim G. 
Swift (Williams 1804), was colleague pastor. He 
completed his theological course at Princeton in 1816. 
Very soon after his uniting with the church he seems to 
have taken a very active part in the movements then 
in progress with reference to the foreign mission work. 
In a paper discovered since his death, and written dur- 
ing his connection with the seminary, he gives expres- 
sion to the great anxiety he felt in view of acting as an 
ambassador of Jesus Christ, and especially in prospect 
of going to Eastern Asia to make known the gospel to 
the heathen. On September 3, 1817, he, along with 
three others, was ordained a foreign missionary, the ser- 
mon on the occasion being preached by Rev. Lyman 

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Williams College and Missions 

Beecher, D.D. (Yale 1797). From November, 1817, 
to March, 1818, he was engaged in a missionary agency, 
under the direction of the American Board, the Rev. 
Dr. Worcester being at that time its Secretary. Mr. 
Swift's special work was collecting funds and awak- 
ening the people to the claims of the missionary enter- 
prise through Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, and 
some other States. He seems to have been prevented 
from going abroad by the serious and long continued 
illness of his wife's mother. But the missionary spirit 
never forsook him, and it appeared afterward that the 
descendant of John Eliot had been kept at home, as Sam- 
uel J. Mills had been, that he might impart to the church 
some of the fire that burned in himself. It is because 
of the work which he did for the cause of missions, es- 
pecially as Foreign Secretary of the Presbyterian 
Board, that a sketch of him is given in this volume. He 
began his labors October 26, 1818, in Dover and Mil- 
ford, Delaware, where he spent a year. In 1819, he 
received and accepted an invitation to become pastor 
of the Second Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, 
Pennsylvania, and was installed on November 5 by a 
committee of the Presbytery of Redstone. In 1822 he 
made a missionary tour among the Indians on the 
Maumee, in company with the Rev. Michael Law, at 
that time pastor of Montour, who died before his return. 
Mr. Swift was among the very first to advocate the 
establishment of the Western Foreign Missionary Soci- 
ety by the Synod of Pittsburgh, from which sprang the 
Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church. 
Though he was tenderly attached to his people, and was 
greatly loved by them in turn, he consented to resign 
his pastorate that he might devote himself to the new 
enterprise. He entered upon his labors as Secretary 
of the Western Foreign Missionary Society, March 1, 
1833. By the energy and enthusiasm with which he 

[82] 




DR. JONAS KING 

Beirut, 1822-1825 



Biographical Sketches 

engaged in this new enterprise, he gave it an impulse 
that was felt throughout the Presbyterian Church of 
this country, among the Indians of the West, and in 
Asia and Africa. He was ready at all times to advo- 
cate with his remarkable power every good cause, but, 
as was said of him, "the very mention of foreign missions 
fired his soul with quenchless ardor and made his voice 
the sound of a trumpet calling to conflict and victory." 
His name will remain indissolubly connected with the 
history of the work done by the Presbyterian Church in 
the foreign field. 

On October 9, 1835, he was installed pastor of the 
First Presbyterian Church, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, 
which position he held until the day of his death, April 
3, 1865, in the 73d year of his age. 

He was for a short time professor in the Western 
University of Pennsylvania, and was also closely iden- 
tified with the origin and growth of the Western Theo- 
logical Seminary, in which he was, for a time, one of its 
instructors, and at the time of his death President of 
its Board of Trustees. He took the deepest interest in 
the young men of that institution, ever ready to give 
them counsel and help, and was regarded by them with 
the greatest veneration and affection. 

He received the honorary degree of Doctor of 
Divinity from Jefferson College in 1837. 

The family of Dr. Swift was eminently a ministerial 
one. His father and an older brother were Congrega- 
tional ministers; two of his sons and a son-in-law were 
Presbyterian ministers; and two grandsons, sons of his 
son-in-law, also entered the ministry. 



CLASS OF 1816 
Jonas King, born in Hawley, Massachusetts, July 
29, 1792, was the son of Jonas and Abigail (Leonard) 

[83] 



Williams College and Missions 

King, and grandson of Thomas and Abigail (Warri- 
ner) King. He was the son of pious parents, the 
father, who was a farmer, being noted for his love of 
the Sacred Scriptures and rigid adherence to their 
teachings. Under his instruction, Jonas read the 
Bible through between the ages of four and six and, 
after that, once a year to the age of sixteen. He was 
converted at the age of fifteen. He was eager to learn, 
but his parents were in humble circumstances, and con- 
sequently unable to give him a college education. He is 
said to have learned English grammar while hoeing 
corn. He read the twelve books of the iEneid in two 
months and the New Testament in Greek in six weeks. 
The story is told how, when fifteen years old, he 
tramped one cold December morning to Plainfleld, 
Massachusetts, where William H. Maynard, who subse- 
quently (1810) graduated from Williams College, was 
teaching school. On his arrival at the school-house, Mr. 
Maynard found the boy already there, and learned 
from him that he had come to consult the teacher as 
to how he might obtain an education. Mr. Maynard 
found that the boy had no acquaintances or friends who 
could aid him, and discovered that while young King 
showed no unusual brilliancy he was possessed of good 
sense and a resolute purpose. The result of the inter- 
view was that Mr. Maynard made arrangements for 
having him board in the family with himself, the lad 
paying his way by manual labor. He made good prog- 
ress in his studies and after a time continued his further 
preparation for college with Rev. Moses Hallock of 
Plainfleld. In college he earned his tuition by teach- 
ing school. Two of his classmates were Worthington 
Smith, who became President of the University of Ver- 
mont, and Stephen Taylor, who became a professor in 
the Union Theological Seminary of Virginia. Eben- 
ezer Emerson, William Richards, and Emory Wash- 

[84] 



Biographical Sketches 

burne were among his college mates. He was a mem- 
ber of the Mills Theological Society and of the Philo- 
technian Society, of which he was one of the presidents. 
He was a superior scholar, graduating with Phi Beta 
Kappa rank. At Commencement, September 4, 1816, 
he had a Philosophical Oration, the subject of his ad- 
dress being "Caloric," and with eight others took part 
in a dialogue. After the completion of his college 
course, he entered Andover Theological Seminary, 
where he was graduated in 1819. On leaving the sem- 
inary he was employed as a home missionary for a short 
time in Massachusetts, and subsequently as a city mis- 
sionary in Charleston, South Carolina, where, on De- 
cember 17, 1819, he was ordained as an evangelist by 
the Congregational Association. For a year he was a 
missionary among the seamen and negroes, and in 1821 
he was a resident licentiate at Andover Seminary. 

While he was pursuing his regular course in the sem- 
inary his mind had been strongly drawn to foreign mis- 
sion work and he was possessed with a desire to go to 
Europe to study the Arabic and then enter some for- 
eign mission field that might be open, — among the Ara- 
bians, perhaps, or Persians. Having decided to study 
in Paris under the celebrated De Sacy, on the eve of 
his departure he was elected Professor of Oriental Lan- 
guages in Amherst College. Being advised to accept 
this appointment, he sailed for Paris August 18, 1821. 
He had been engaged in his studies but a short time 
when he received a pressing invitation from Pliny Fisk, 
— Rev. Levi Parsons having died, — to join him in mis- 
sion work in the Holy Land. It is an interesting coin- 
cidence that these three persons, — Fisk, King, and Par- 
sons, — who were the first three American missionaries 
to be sent to Jerusalem, were born in what was then 
the same county, and within twenty-five miles of each 
other, in the same year (1792), and within thirty-five 

[85] 



Williams College and Missions 

days of the same time. It was of the so-called "moun- 
tain towns" of that same old county of Hampshire that 
the remark has been made that they "have furnished 
to the profession, and particularly to the ministry, a 
larger number of young men than almost any other sec- 
tion of the country, in proportion to their population.' ' 
Not unnaturally have those elevated and comparatively 
rude regions of New England suggested to writers the 
Roman poet's description of ancient Numidia — leonum 
arida nutrioc. In accordance with the request of Mr. 
Fisk, Mr. King offered his services to the American 
Board for three years, and friends in Europe having 
guaranteed his expenses, on September 30, 1822, he left 
Paris for Malta. The journal he kept during this jour- 
ney glows with the zeal with which he entered upon 
his missionary life and shows how he obeyed the apos- 
tle's injunction to preach the gospel and be instant 
in season and out of season. He not only talked of the 
Christian life with his fellow travellers, but he preached 
and distributed Eibles and tracts among the people 
wherever he stopped. He was also alive to anything 
of historic interest in the places through which they 
passed. At one time he writes: "At five o'clock we ar- 
rived at Fontenay, where we dined. After dinner, I 
visited the old stone bridge, said to have been built in 
the time of Julius Caesar. Near it stands a small house, 
said to have been erected at the same time. The stone 
columns in front of it bear marks of high antiquity. 
Here, said I, where Julius Caesar brought war and des- 
olation, I will endeavor to do something to promote the 
Kingdom of the Prince of Peace." When sailing out 
of Marseilles, and France, where he had spent an inter- 
esting year, was receding from view, his record is: 
"Land of science and of sin, of gaiety and pleasure! 
I bid thee farewell! . . . Thou hast within thy bosom 
all that can gratify genius, and taste, and sense. Oh, 

[86] 



Biographical Sketches 

when shall the spirit of Massillon rest upon thy priests! 
When shall the light of millennial glory dawn upon thy 
population! With fervent prayers for thy prosperity, 
I bid thee farewell." 

From Malta, where he was joined by other mission- 
aries, the journey* lay to Alexandria, whence, after 
visiting Upper Egypt, the party went by way of 
the Desert to Jerusalem. An extract from the first 
letter written by Mr. King after his arrival tells of the 
sort of work in which the missionaries engaged and the 
promptness with which they began it: "Mr. Fisk and 
myself have taken lodgings on Mount Calvary, in one 
of the Greek convents called the 'Convent of the Arch- 
angel. ' Mr. Wolff has taken lodgings with his breth- 
ren, the Jews, to whom he daily expounds Moses and 
the Prophets, 'persuading them concerning Jesus from 
morning till evening.' . . . Our situation here is tran- 
quil, and our prospects as favorable as we could ex- 
pect. Since our arrival we have sold about seventy, 
and given away about forty, New Testaments, besides 
between 500 and 600 tracts." The labors of the mis- 
sionaries were not confined to Jerusalem, but extended 
throughout Palestine and Syria, and among not only 
Jews, but Mussulmans, Maronites, Greek and Roman 
Catholics, and others. Of course, as was to be expected, 
the missionaries encountered not only vigorous opposi- 
tion but persecution from such a variety of religions, 
and sometimes they had to flee from the soldiers of 
pashas. 

Mr. King's term of service having expired, on Au- 
gust 26, 1825, after three years of active and useful 
missionary labors, he left Syria for his return home- 
ward. From 1822 to 1825, Mr. King and his associ- 
ates, besides their preaching, teaching, and translating, 
had distributed nearly 4000 copies of the Scriptures, 
and about 20,000 tracts. On his leaving his field, Mr. 

[87] 



Williams College and Missions 

King wrote to his friends in Palestine and Syria a fare- 
well letter, which was translated into Arabic and widely 
circulated. The letter, in which he states his reasons 
why he could not join the Roman Catholic Church, ex- 
cited no little attention and, as will be seen, brought 
alarm to the hierarchy of every sect. 

After leaving his field, he resided for some months 
in Smyrna, where he did much service for the Greeks 
and made good progress in the modern Greek lan- 
guage. After visiting Constantinople, where he was 
received with great kindness by several high Greek 
ecclesiastics, he returned, by way of France and Eng- 
land, to America, reaching home at the close of the 
summer of 1827. Soon after the annual meeting of the 
Board he made a tour as agent through the Southern 
and Middle States, which occupied him till April of 
the following year. 

About this time the Ladies' Greek Committee of 
New York prepared a ship-load of food and clothing 
for the afflicted Greeks, and invited Mr. King to be 
their almoner and also their missionary to Greece. Re- 
signing his professorship in Amherst and declining a 
call to Yale, he embarked from New York early in 
June, 1828, reaching Poros July 28. He visited many 
important places, relieving want, establishing schools, 
and preaching Christ. In this work he was favored by 
people, priests, and the President of Greece. 

On July 22, 1829, he was married by Rev. Dr. Ru- 
fus Anderson, at Tenos, to Annetta Aspasia Mengous, 
a Smyrniote lady of influence, of Greek parentage, 
whose acquaintance he had formed years before, and 
who proved an efficient helper in his mission work. He 
and his wife at first opened a school for girls at Tenos, 
which, though opposed by officers of the Church, was 
on the whole successful. In the autumn of 1830, antici- 
pating the evacuation of Athens by the Turks, Mr. 

[88] 



Biographical Sketches 

King visited that city and arranged for his future resi- 
dence. In the spring of the next year, having resumed 
his connection with the Board, he removed to Athens, 
which now became his permanent home. Here he soon 
built a school-house in which he had services in Greek 
every Sunday till 1860. He established an "Evangeli- 
cal Gymnasium," in which he gave religious instruction 
several times a week. He also formed a theological 
class of Greeks and Italians, some of whom subse- 
quently held prominent positions in the Government. 

In due time the hierarchy became alarmed and Dr. 
King was brought before the Areopagus charged with 
reviling the "mother of God" and the "holy images." 
His life was threatened and at one time a conspiracy 
of fifty men was formed against him. He was charac- 
terized as a hypocrite, impostor, deceiver, and a vessel 
of Satan. The case was decided against him in three 
successive courts. Then was to come a trial in the crim- 
inal court as to the truth of the charges and the inflic- 
tion of punishment. The trial was to take place at 
Syra, but so great was the excitement that the king's 
attorney decided against its taking place on the day 
named. The British Ambassador offered Dr. King 
British protection in case of need. Though the whole 
subject rested for nearly a year, there was only a lull 
in the storm. In 1847 a series of articles appeared in 
the leading paper of Athens, called the Age, designed 
to excite prejudice against the missionary and to urge 
the people to stop the scandal of his preaching. By the 
advice of the king, made known through the Swedish 
Minister, Dr. King withdrew from the country for 
about a year, spending the time in Geneva and other 
European cities. He returned to Athens in June, 
1848, and was cordially received by many of those who 
had formerly opposed him. After about three years 
of comparative quiet and when he began to be more en- 

[89] 



Williams College and Missions 

couraged in his work, occurred the first new outbreak 
of popular feeling, when evil-minded persons tried to 
break up a preaching service held at his own house. 
The unfurling of the American flag at his door dis- 
persed the crowd. In May, 1851, he was called to 
appear before a judge to answer to the charge of pros- 
elyting. Other charges and other trials followed, with 
tumults that endangered his life. Though the final 
charge of reviling the dogmas of the Eastern Church 
was not proved, he was adjudged to be guilty, and con- 
demned to fifteen days' imprisonment, to pay the costs 
of court, and then to be banished from the Kingdom of 
Greece. On the 9th of March when he entered the 
prison, where were 125 other prisoners crowded into 
eleven small rooms, he wrote: "My heart is not sorrow- 
ful, but full of joy. I consider this as one of the bright- 
est days of my life. With my whole heart I thank the 
Lord Jesus Christ that I am counted worthy to suffer 
shame for his name, and for the truths which He has 
taught. . . . My principal petition to God, during all 
these days of excitement and triumph of the enemy, 
has been, that the name of the Lord may be glorified 
in me, and that the cause of truth may finally prevail." 
This petition was answered. Having appealed to the 
Areopagus, Dr. King was removed from prison after 
one day and the sentence of banishment was delayed 
by his protest in the name of the United States Govern- 
ment. The time had come for missionaries to be pro- 
tected in their just rights and privileges. Daniel 
Webster was Secretary of State, and George P. Marsh, 
then Minister Resident at Constantinople, was ordered 
to proceed to Athens in a ship of war and inquire into 
the case. Mr. Marsh was instructed to communicate to 
the Government of Greece the decided opinion of the 
President of the United States "that Dr. King did not 
have a fair trial, and that consequently the sentence of 

[90] 



Biographical Sketches 

banishment ought immediately to be revoked." In due 
time the sentence of banishment was revoked. Another 
battle for religious freedom had been fought and won. 
Though occasionally the old enmity would appear, 
and though he was never entirely free from persecution, 
being cited once or twice to appear before the judicial 
authorities, and being once anathematized by the Holy 
Synod of Athens; yet a manifest change had taken 
place in public sentiment, and many who had bit- 
terly opposed him became most cordial; and in May, 
1864, the venerable missionary was invited by the 
new king to administer the Lord's Supper in the 
palace. 

In this struggle with the Greek hierarchy, Dr. 
King's courage resembled that of Martin Luther, to 
whom he bore many strong resemblances, and whatever 
of national reformation occurred in Greece in later 
years must be attributed in no small degree to Dr. 
King's courage and firmness in his battle for freedom 
to worship God. Very fittingly might be applied to 
him the lines of Browning: 

"One who never turned his back but marched breast forward, 
Never doubted clouds would break, 
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would 
triumph, 
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, 
Sleep to wake." 

In 1864, his health being much impaired, and re- 
quiring a change, Dr. King left Athens, with Mrs. 
King, in July of that year, and in the following month 
reached the United States, where they remained three 
years. 

On their return to Greece in the autumn of 1867, 
Dr. King was happy in finding some of his former pu- 
pils engaged in work similar to his own. Among the 
pupils were Messrs. Kalopathakes and Constantine, 

[W] 



Williams College and Missions 

who had studied in the United States. Another pleas- 
ing event for him was the interview which had been ar- 
ranged for him with the President of the "Holy Synod," 
— the very man who, in 1863, had signed the accusation 
against him. This interview was a striking illustration 
of the progress of public opinion, and well might the 
venerable missionary write of it: "A considerable de- 
gree of religious liberty has been gained, and a founda- 
tion has been laid, on which, I trust, will one day arise 
a beautiful structure." 

Dr. King died at Athens on the 22nd of May, 
1889, in the 77th year of his age. 

The striking characteristics of Dr. King were those 
of the reformer. The battle he fought against bigotry 
and intolerance and on behalf of religious liberty, not 
only brought it about that, in Greece, "the Word of 
God is not bound," but that battle has given greater 
safety and greater freedom to all missionaries in all 
lands. 

He was a thorough linguist, having studied eleven 
languages, and being able to speak five with fluency. 
His scholarship was recognized by Amherst and Yale 
in offering him professorships, and by Princeton in 
conferring upon him, in 1832, the degree of Doctor of 
Divinity. 

His original works in Arabic, Greek, and French 
were ten in number, some of them being widely read 
and translated into other languages. He revised and 
carried through the press eleven other works. It has 
been estimated that he distributed 400,000 copies of 
Scripture portions, religious tracts, and schoolbooks in 
Greece and Turkey, besides what he scattered during 
his travels in other parts of Europe, and in Palestine, 
Syria, and Egypt. Through his instrumentality and 
that of his associates, a score of Greek men were liber- 
ally educated and more than 10,000 Greek youth re- 

f92] 



Biographical Sketches 

ceived instruction at the various mission schools in 
Greece and Turkey. 

The journal which Dr. King kept of his travels and 
labors was published in the current numbers of the Mis- 
sionary Herald. Besides the journal, numerous let- 
ters, and translations of several religious books into 
modern Greek, the following is a partial list of his pub- 
lished writings: 

"Farewell Letter to his friends in Palestine and 
Syria" (1825); "Defence of Jonas King" (1845); 
"Exposition of an Apostolic Church" (1851); "Her- 
meneutics of the Sacred Scriptures" (1857) ; "Synop- 
tical View of Palestine and Syria, with Additions" 
(1859) ; "Miscellaneous Works" (1859-60). 

Rev. Dr. Prime wrote concerning him: "I was 
with him in the midst of his afflictions, when the sen- 
tence of banishment hung over him like the sword of 
Damocles suspended by a hair. He was calm, and res- 
olute, and believing. I saw him and heard, with a 
throng of eager hearers at his feet listening to him, 
while he taught in the city of Athens, higher wisdom 
than Aristotle, with an earnestness and pathos that the 
orators of Greece had not surpassed. There he spent 
his long, laborious life. In a single year he distributed 
more than 700 copies of the Word of God. He pub- 
lished four volumes of his own works in their language. 
A generation and more passed away while he taught 
the way of life by Jesus Christ. One, and another, and 
another heard and believed. A reformation was be- 
gun there. They knew that a prophet was in the midst 
of them. He did his work, and has gone to his reward. 
His last words were, 'About the work of the Lord.' " 



[93] 



Williams College and Missions 

CLASS OF 1819 
John Clark Brigham was born in New Marl- 
boro', Berkshire County, Massachusetts, February 28, 
1794. He was in part fitted for college by the Rev. 
Jacob Catlin, D.D. (Yale 1784), who was for many 
years pastor of the Congregational Church in New 
Marlboro'. In college he had as classmates Gerard 
and William Allen Hallock, and William Richards, 
the missionary, all three of them from the "hill town" 
of Plainfield, Massachusetts. He became a member of 
the Mills Theological Society, and of the Philotechnian 
Society, of which he was one of the presidents. His 
name also appears in the list of members of the Philo- 
logian Society. He was a superior student, and at 
graduation he delivered the Salutatory Oration in 
Latin, while William Allen Hallock had the Valedic- 
tory. Brigham also took part with two others — Cyrus 
M. Lazell and Charles Dillingham — in a dialogue en- 
titled "The Hermit, or Story of Manville." Subse- 
quently the two classmates, Brigham and Hallock, who 
had been raised in neighboring towns, labored side by 
side for thirty-six years, one as the head of the Ameri- 
can Bible Society, and the other as the head of the 
American Tract Society. On graduation from college 
Mr. Brigham entered the seminary at Andover, where 
he was graduated in 1822. The following year he was 
sent out by the American Board on an exploring tour 
to South America, setting sail from Boston on July 25, 
in company with Rev. Theophilus Parvin, recently 
from Princeton Seminary. They arrived at Buenos 
Ayres, October 24, and spent the remainder of the year 
in perfecting their knowledge of the Spanish language. 
Mr. Parvin engaged in teaching and preaching until 
September, 1825, when he returned to the United 
States to make arrangements for more extensive opera- 
tions. Being honorably discharged, at his own request, 

[94] 



Biographical Sketches 

from the service of the Board, and receiving ordination 
in Philadelphia in January, 1820, he returned early in 
that year to Buenos Ayres, with press, printer, and 
teacher, and was appointed professor in the university 
there. Mr. Brigham left Buenos Ayres October 20, 
1824, and, in accordance with the original design of 
the mission, crossed the continent to the Pacific. He 
examined into the state of the Araucanian Indians, vis- 
ited Chili and Peru, and returned to the United States, 
through Mexico, arriving in New York in May, 1826. 
He sold and gave away many copies of the Scriptures, 
and by conversation with persons in various walks in 
life gathered much valuable information. An account 
of his tour, and of his experiences with robbers, was pub- 
lished in the Missionary Herald. One of the results of 
this tour was to turn the attention of the American 
Bible Society to Mexico, where, in the opinion of Mr. 
Brigham, in the whole republic, containing a population 
of 7,000,000, not more than 2000 Bibles had ever been 
distributed. On his return, Mr. Brigham was released, 
July 4, 1826, from the Board, and was appointed As- 
sistant Secretary of the Bible Society, and in 1826 was 
made Secretary in full. As he was the first man to de- 
vote his whole time to the interests of the society, he 
may be regarded as its first secretary. On his assum- 
ing the office one wrote of him: "His extensive and 
thorough acquaintance with the operations of the So- 
ciety, both domestic and foreign, and his long experi- 
ence combined, render him a most valuable acquisition 
to the Bible cause. He is a gentleman of liberal and 
enlarged views. His constant and unremitting devo- 
tion to the interests of an institution so truly catholic 
and benevolent in its character, are of such a nature as 
to produce the most happy effect upon his mind and 
heart, so that "sectional prejudices and sectarian jeal- 
ousies" can find no room for admission. His Christian 

[W] 



Williams College and Missions 

frankness and urbanity are just such as the friends of 
the Bible cause might expect from one whose relation 
to the Society gives him the greatest influence in the 
management of its concerns." 

He was ordained October 10, 1832. For a period 
of thirty-six years, Mr. Brigham was the responsible 
agent and director of that important institution, and 
had a career of large success and usefulness. At his 
suggestion the Society attempted the great work of 
supplying every family in the United States with a 
copy of the Scriptures. He served the Society with 
rare fidelity and devoted himself to accomplishing 
the work for which it was organized with an intelligent 
and disinterested perseverance. 

He died in Brooklyn, New York, August 10, 1862. 

He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Di- 
vinity from Washington and Jefferson College in 1843. 

William Richards, the seventh child and third 
son of James and Lydia (Shaw) Richards, was born at 
Plainfield, Massachusetts, August 22, 1793. He was 
a younger brother of James Richards, Jr., who grad- 
uated from Williams College in 1809, who had been one 
of the Men of the Haystack and who subsequently went 
as a missionary to Ceylon. His grandparents were Jo- 
seph and Sarah (Whitmarsh) Richards, and Captain 
Ebenezer and Ann (Molson) Shaw. The family is 
descended from William Richards, who came to Plym- 
outh before 1633, and ultimately settled in Weymouth, 
Massachusetts. 

The father was a farmer by occupation, but was 
also a teacher and held many public officers. His 
marked characteristics were honesty, executive ability, 
Christian character, and legal acuteness. The mother 
is described as a most excellent woman. The parents 
gave to their children the best of pious instruction. 

[ 96 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

At the age of fifteen, William became hopefully 
pious, and three years later he united with the church 
in his native place, under the care of the Rev. Moses 
Hallock. His desire to become a missionary was, prob- 
ably, awakened by his older brother, who, about the 
time of his graduation, disclosed his plan for life to the 
younger brother. 

William fitted for college, as his brother had done, 
under the instruction of his pastor, Mr. Hallock, and 
entered Williams as a Freshman in 1815. He had as 
classmates two sons of his pastor, Gerard and William 
Allen Hallock. In college he was a member of the 
Mills Theological Society, and also of the Philotechnian 
Literary Society, of which he was, for a time, president. 
His name also appears in the list of the Philologian 
Society. He was a superior student, graduating with 
Phi Beta Kappa rank. At Commencement he had a 
Philosophical Oration, the subject of his address being 
"The Nature and Effects of Dew." 

In the sketch of James Richards attention has al- 
ready been called to the large number of students whom 
Mr. Hallock fitted for college, and to the large percent- 
age of ministers among them. It would be an interest- 
ing piece of research work to inquire how many profes- 
sional men have been furnished to the country by Litch- 
field County, Connecticut, and the westernmost coun- 
ties of Massachusetts. The claim has been made that, 
with the possible exception of New Hampshire, the so- 
called "hill towns" of Hampshire (from which the coun- 
ties of Hampden and Franklin were separated) have 
furnished to the professions, and particularly to the 
ministry, a larger number of young men than almost 
any other section of the country, in proportion to their 
population. A goodly percentage of those of whom 
sketches are given in the earlier part of this volume 
came from the parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut 



Williams College and Missions 

just mentioned. Much influence, doubtless, must be at- 
tributed to the location of Amherst and Williams Col- 
leges, much also to such pastors of country churches as 
Moses Hallock, but much influence must be attributed 
to the rugged soil and mountain scenery of the hill 
towns where "no pent-up Utica contracts your powers, ,, 
but where the wide sweep of the eye suggests to the 
mind the wider interests of the world at large. 

After graduating in 1819, Mr. Richards pursued 
his theological studies at Andover. In February, 
1822, the American Board having planned to reinforce 
the mission at the Sandwich Islands, which had been 
commenced the year before, Mr. Richards offered him- 
self for that service and was accepted. He was or- 
dained in New Haven, Connecticut, on September 12 
of the same year, with two other missionaries, the Rev. 
Dr. Miller of the Princeton Theological Seminary 
preaching the sermon. On November 19 he, with his 
wife, embarked at New Haven with two other ordained 
missionaries, Artemas Bishop and Charles Samuel 
Stewart, their wives and four pious natives of the Sand- 
wich Islands who had been educated in this country. 
On the evening before sailing, Mr. Richards preached 
a sermon from Isaiah LX, 9: "Surely the isles shall 
wait for me." 

After a prosperous voyage of five months, during 
which their relations with the officers and crew were 
most harmonious, and Sunday services with Bible 
classes were maintained, they reached Honolulu on 
Sunday, April 27, 1823. The missionaries were most 
cordially welcomed, not only by their future associates, 
but by several chiefs of the island. Messrs. Richards 
and Stewart were assigned to the station in Lahaina, 
on the Island of Maui, and soon took up their residence 
there. The temporary arrangements for shelter were 
thus described by Mr. Richards: "We are living in 

[98] 



Biographical Sketches 

houses built by the heathen and presented to us. They 
are built in native style, and consist of posts driven into 
the ground, on which small poles are tied horizontally, 
and then long grass is fastened to the poles by strings 
which pass round each bundle. We have no floors, and 
no windows except holes cut through the thatching, 
which are closed by shutters without glass." 

The importance of the Sandwich Islands had been 
recognized from the time of their first discovery by 
Captain Cook, in 1778. Lying as they do in a position 
convenient to be visited by whaling vessels and ships 
engaged in trade with China, the Islands became the 
residence of American merchants as early as the year 
1786. The Islands are of volcanic formation, and 
among the rocky and barren mountains, some of great 
height, are valleys of great fertility. The climate is 
also agreeable. 

A preparation for the work of the missionaries had 
been made by a series of remarkable events which 
clearly revealed a divine agency, and from the very first 
Mr. Richards found much to encourage his efforts. 
Kamehameha, a king of uncommon capacity, had 
availed himself of the advantages derived from inter- 
course with civilized nations. He had raised an army 
and created a navy, and several of his chiefs had ac- 
quired a knowledge of the English language. News 
came of the changes wrought in Tahiti by a new reli- 
gion. Obookiah and others had received a Christian ed- 
ucation in the United States. On the death of Kame- 
hameha, who had exercised an uncontrolled despotism 
and upheld idolatry, his son, Liholiho, abolished the 
whole system of superstition, while an earnest desire 
was expressed for the arrival of missionaries. Even 
while some of these events were transpiring the first mis- 
sionaries were on their way and arrived in March, 1820. 

Soon after reaching his station, Mr. Richards 

[99] 



Williams College and Missions 

wrote: "The field for usefulness here is great; and I 
have never, for a moment since I arrived, had a single 
fear that my usefulness on these Islands will be limited 
by anything but my own imperfections. * . * It is 
enough for me, that in looking back I can see clearly 
that the finger of Providence pointed me to these Is- 
lands ; and that in looking forward, I see some prospect 
of success and of lasting usefulness. " As soon as he 
had acquired such a knowledge of the language as to 
be able to use it in giving religious instruction, he found 
many attentive hearers. In 1825 there was manifested 
a remarkable spirit of religious inquiry, and scarcely an 
hour of the day passed without his being interrupted 
by calls from persons seeking the way of eternal life. 
Sometimes he was even awakened at night to answer 
these anxious inquiries. In the midst of this interest he 
wrote: "As I was walking this evening, I heard the 
voice of prayer in six different houses, in the course of 
a few rods. I think there are now not less than fifty 
houses in Lahaina where the morning and evening sac- 
rifice is regularly offered to the true God." Several 
houses of worship were erected, and about 800 persons 
were gathered in schools in different parts of the island. 
The success of this religious awakening soon stirred 
up a spirit of resistance, and, shame to relate, the re- 
sistance came from the representatives of Christian na- 
tions. The purpose of the chiefs to put an end to licen- 
tiousness repeatedly brought the lives of the mission- 
aries into peril at the hands of English and American 
sailors and officers. The attitude of France was scarce- 
ly less criminal in her attempt to force upon the island- 
ers "French priests and French brandy." The heroic 
courage of Mr. Richards, supported by equal heroism 
in Mrs. Richards, along with the spirit and firmness of 
the natives, proved for a time an effectual security. 
But when there came back to the Islands the news that 

[100] 



Biographical Sketches 

Mr. Richards had reported in the United States the 
criminal conduct of English and American whalers, 
foreign residents, in retaliation, published slanderous 
accusations against the missionaries, which, of course, 
were entirely without foundation. 

In 1828 there began a season of great religious in- 
terest, which continued for two or three years, and in 
1830 the number of communicants amounted to 300. 
Although trials came to the missionaries from time to 
time from the action of a corrupt king, yet Christianity 
had gained such a hold upon the people that its prog- 
ress could not be checked even by a king, until it had 
gained a triumph, the story of which forms one of the 
brightest pages in the history of modern missions. One 
of the most prominent agents in bringing about this 
glorious result was Mr. Richards. 

In 1837, after fourteen years of labor, he made a 
visit to the United States, accompanied by his wife and 
the six oldest children. The health of himself and his 
wife made such a change desirable, and, furthermore, 
he wished to provide for the education of his children 
in this country. On his return to his post in the spring 
of 1838, the king and chiefs, who felt the need of re- 
form in their government, asked Mr. Richards to be- 
come their teacher, chaplain, and interpreter. With the 
consent of the Board, he accepted this position, and 
though he resigned his appointment as missionary, the 
duties of which he had discharged with signal success 
for sixteen years, his labors among his own church and 
people were not remitted. That he might be better 
able to instruct the people in economic subjects, he 
translated about this time Dr. Wayland's Treatise on 
Political Economy. It was largely through his efforts 
that the old Feudal system was broken down and the 
people became an independent nation. 

On the organization of a responsible government, 

[101] 



Williams College and Missions 

Mr. Richards was sent as Ambassador to England, 
France, and the United States. On his return in 
March, 1845, after an absence of about three years, he 
found a new government had been organized, and sev- 
eral foreigners employed. On the earnest petitions of 
the natives of all the islands, he accepted, somewhat 
against his wishes, the appointment as Minister of Pub- 
lic Instruction, an office which gave him a seat in the 
King's Privy Council. As a member of the Cabinet, 
he had a larger influence with the young king, prob- 
ably, than any other persons. In addition to the dis- 
charge of the ordinary duties of a Cabinet officer, he 
preached regularly at the palace on Sunday evening. 
The extra work devolved upon him in his two-fold rela- 
tions to the Church and the State proved too much for 
his constitution. On the 18th of July, 1847, while he 
was at the palace he was suddenly attacked by illness 
which was brought on by overwork and which proved 
the harbinger of death. He died on the 7th of Novem- 
ber following, at the age of 54. His remains repose in 
Lahaina, near the stone church which was built under 
his superintendence, and in which he preached the gos- 
pel for nearly twenty years. 

While Mr. Richards was not distinguished for 
brilliancy of talent, he was plentifully endowed with 
what is more rare, and what is a most essential quality 
in a missionary, — common sense. A marked charac- 
teristic of him was the zeal with which he could work 
for an object which commended itself to his moral judg- 
ment. True and frank in all his dealings, he secured 
the confidence of those with whom he had to do. Along 
with single-minded integrity was combined an absolute 
fearlessness which stood him in good stead in many crit- 
ical circumstances. His moral strength had its source 
in the principles of religion and in a piety which was 
robust and which had been implanted at an early age. 

[102] 



Biographical Sketches 

Much of his great success as a missionary depended 
upon his gaining not only the confidence but also the 
affection of the natives. Dr. Rufus Anderson, his 
classmate in Andover Seminary, writes on this point: 
"He was dearly beloved by the good people of Lahaina, 
who loaded him with their simple presents when depart- 
ing for the United States in 1836; presenting them with 
tears, and often clasping his feet with loud lamenta- 
tions, lest they should see his face no more. Perhaps 
no man has ever shared more largely in the affections 
of the Hawaiian people than did Mr. Richards." One 
evidence of the high esteem in which he was held is the 
fact that the king settled an annuity upon the family 
of Mr. Richards after his death. 

Mr. Gerard Hallock, a fellow townsman and class- 
mate, has left this sketch of Mr. Richards: "He was 
rather above the average stature of men; strong and 
muscular; not specially attractive in person or manners, 
but commanding confidence and respect by his manifest 
integrity, firmness, and energy, and gaining the affec- 
tions of those who knew him intimately by his qualities 
of mind and heart. His intellectual powers were of a 
high order. When at college, he excelled in mathemat- 
ics, natural and intellectual philosophy, and logic, while, 
in the languages and belles lettres, he scarcely rose 
above the common average. His religious character, 
after his conversion, was decided, — his faith firm, his 
purposes steadfast. As a preacher, he was distinguished 
rather for energy and point than for eloquence in the 
common acceptation of the term. His sermons were 
faithful exhibitions of the truth as it is in Jesus. He 
sought rather to save men than to please them." 

On October 30, 1822, Mr. Richards married Cla- 
rissa, daughter of Levi Lyman, of Northampton, Mas- 
sachusetts. She survived her husband many years, 
dying in Xew Haven, Connecticut, October 3, 1861. 

[103] 



Williams College and Missions 

There were born to them eight children. Of these 
William L., the eldest son, was graduated at Jefferson 
College, and after studying at the University of New 
York and Union Theological Seminary, went in the 
autumn of 1847, a missionary to China. Starting to 
return to this country on account of ill health, he died 
on the homeward passage, and was buried in the ocean 
off St. Helena, on the 5th of June, 1851. Two other 
sons were graduated at Amherst College, one of whom 
studied theology and the other medicine. Of the chil- 
dren who grew up, married, and had children, a daugh- 
ter, Harriet Kapioloni Richards, married William S. 
Clark, who was sometime Professor of Chemistry in 
Amherst College, President of Amherst Agricultural 
College, and a Colonel of Volunteers, U. S. A., in the 
Civil War. A son of President Clark is Professor Hu- 
bert Lyman Clark of the Museum of Comparative 
Zoology, in Harvard University. Levi Lyman Rich- 
ards, son of William Richards, having been educated 
and adopted by Samuel Williston of Easthampton, 
Massachusetts, changed his name to Lyman Richards 
Williston. Professor Samuel Williston of the Har- 
vard Law School is his son. Julia Maria Richards, an- 
other daughter of William Richards, married Fisk P. 
Brewer (Yale 1852), a brother of Justice Brewer, and 
for a long time Professor of Greek in Grinnell College. 



CLASS OF 1820 
Dwight Baldwin, eldest son of Seth and Rhoda 
(Hall) Baldwin, was born in Durham, Connecticut, 
September 29, 1798. When he was about four or five 
years of age his parents removed to Durham, New 
York, where he fitted for college and from which place 
he entered Williams in 1817, not remaining here to 
graduate, however, but taking his Senior year at Yale, 

[104] 



Biographical Sketches 

where he was graduated in 1821. After graduation he 
taught school for some years in Kingston, Catskill, and 
Durham, New York. In 1824, while teaching in Dur- 
ham, he began the study of medicine, but under the in- 
fluence of the faithful preaching of Rev. Dr. Seth Wil- 
liston, he became a Christian and, on uniting with the 
church in Durham, he decided to study for the ministry. 
In 1826 he entered Auburn Theological Seminary, 
where he was graduated in 1829. During his last year 
in the seminary he offered himself to the American 
Board as a missionary. He was accepted by the Board, 
and, on their advice, he attended a course of medical lec- 
tures at Harvard. He was ordained at Utica, New 
York, October 6, 1830, by the Presbytery of Utica. 
On the 28th of December he and his wife sailed from 
New Bedford for Honolulu, reaching there the follow- 
ing year. He was one of the third reinforcement sent 
by the Board to the Sandwich Islands, the other mem- 
bers of the company being Reuben Tinker and Sheldon 
Dibble, ordained missionaries, and Andrew Johnstone, 
assistant in secular affairs, and their wives. Dr. Bald- 
win was first stationed at Waimea, in the interior of 
Hawaii, but his health was so broken by the three years 
of labor and hardship there that in 1835 he removed to 
Lahaina, on the Island of Maui, where there was a 
warmer and drier climate, and which was then the fa- 
vorite residence of the king. Dr. Anderson, in the vol- 
ume on "The Hawaiian Islands," has given the follow- 
ing description of the place: "Lahaina, as beheld from 
the sea, presents a luxurious mass of tropical foliage, 
chiefly the cocoanut, kou, and banana trees, but with 
barren heights in the background, welling into a moun- 
tain. Seen from Lahainaluna, two miles above, it ap- 
pears a well- watered garden, spreading itself three miles 
along the shore. The streets are narrow, and the town, 
though greatly improved from what it was, has less ap- 

[ 105 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

pearance of civilization than Honolulu. In former 
years, when a large number of whaling ships came to 
the Islands for supplies, Lahaina rivalled the metropoli- 
tan port as a place of resort. Its chief dependence at 
present is on the sugar-cane, growing to great perfec- 
tion in its rich alluvion. Its well-conditioned stone 
church, with galleries, tower, and bell, and its burying- 
ground adjacent, where lie the honored dead, together 
with the large Christian audience on the Sabbath, in- 
terested me not a little. Some hundreds of communi- 
cants were present at the Lord's Supper." 

In Lahaina, Dr. Baldwin's health, which had been 
greatly benefited by a voyage to the Society and 
Georgian Islands, was fully restored. Here he re- 
mained as pastor of the church and as physician to a 
wide neighborhood of mission families until September, 
1868, when he was obliged by partial paralysis to resign 
his most useful work. The church of which he was 
pastor was a most important one, and was blessed, from 
time to time, with revivals of religion. In 1845 he re- 
ported the addition of fifty-five to the church, with 150 
prospective candidates. At that time the church had 
about 700 members. Lahaina became very important 
as a station on account of its being visited so often by 
ships of different nations. Besides his labors as a pas- 
tor and physician, he did much for education. In 
1849 he reported the existence of twenty-two schools 
in his field and the erection during the year of several 
new school-houses. At the close of the examinations of 
that year, the schools of Lahaina and one out-station 
united in a public celebration and feast, at which 1000 
children were present, and which was honored by the 
presence of the Governor of Maui, and that of the mis- 
sionary brethren of Lahainaluna, with their families. 
Dr. Baldwin was also interested in the formation of a 
Lahaina Bible Society. He also labored earnestly for 

[106] 



Biographical Sketches 

the seamen of the ships which visited that port, and 
was instrumental in the building of a seamen's chapel. 

Some idea of the progress made by the natives in 
civilization may be obtained from a letter of Mr. Bald- 
win, published in the Missionary Herald for 1846. 
"For two or three years past, including spring and fall," 
he writes, "we have had nearly 400 whale ships here 
annually to recruit. These are to be supplied with 
water, hogs, goats, bananas, melons, pumpkins, yams, 
turkeys, ducks, fowls, and beef, all which can be had 
in abundance; but the greatest article for which they 
come is Irish potatoes, which grow plentifully in the 
interior of this island. This demand for the produce 
of the Islands encourages industry; and it brings in 
clothing and other necessaries for the people, and makes 
money more abundant on this than on other islands. 
Most of the wealth, however, gained from all this traf- 
fic, goes into the hands of foreigners. Still, enough is 
received by the natives to enable them to improve their 
mode of living. Such improvements are constantly 
going on among us. Among our 3000 people there is 
already a considerable number of comfortable stone 
houses; there are also 100 or more built of adobes (dirt 
bricks dried in the sun), about 150 families eat at the 
table in our style ; this is a great change from the native 
mode of eating on mats. Many sleep on foreign bed- 
steads, or rather bedsteads made in foreign style; and 
many have a pretty good supply of chairs, of cooking 
utensils, and table furniture. Some of them have also 
clocks in their houses, or other time-pieces." 

On the failure of his health, in 1868, Dr. Baldwin 
removed to Honolulu, where he was able for a few years 
to give instruction in church history and Bible history 
in the native theological school. He was compelled 
by increasing feebleness to give up this work also, and 
spent the last few years of his life in the home of his 

[107] 



Williams College and Missions 

youngest daughter, Mrs. S. M. Damon. Though en- 
gaged in no specific work, he kept up his interest in the 
welfare of the Hawaiian people, for whom he had given 
so many of the best years of his life. He died of 
apoplexy January 3, 1886. The funeral, which was 
held in the Kawaiahao church, was largely attended, 
the services being conducted in both English and Ha- 
waiian. He was buried in the mission graveyard, back 
of the Kawaiahao church, by the side of his wife, who 
had died October 2, 1873. 

From the very first of his active missionary life, he 
was specially interested in all movements to diminish 
the use and sale of liquor and tobacco. An essay 
which he wrote on this subject received the prize of- 
fered at one time in the United States. Lahaina, dur- 
ing the years of his residence there, was a winter ren- 
dezvous for the Pacific whaling fleet, and his house ever 
gave a hospitable welcome to all sailors. "Sturdy and 
fearless, methodical and active, he had the respect and 
confidence of all classes." 

The honorary degree of M. D. was conferred on 
him by Dartmouth College in 1859. 

He married December 3, 1830, Charlotte, daughter 
of Deacon Solomon and Olive (Douglass) Fowler of 
North Eranford, Connecticut. Of their eight children, 
four sons and four daughters, two died in infancy. The 
eldest son, David Dwight Baldwin, was graduated from 
Yale College in 1857, and the eldest daughter married 
Hon. William De Witt Alexander (Yale 1855), of 
Honolulu, at one time President of Oahu College. 



CLASS OF 1823 

David Oliver Allen, eldest son of Moses and 
Mehitable Allen, was born in Barre, Massachusetts, 
September 14, 1799. While he was a child, his parents 

[log] 



Biographical Sketches 

moved to Princeton, Massachusetts, where the son 
spent his youth on a farm, enjoying the usual advan- 
tages of a common school education. At the age of 
seventeen he taught a winter school, and continued to 
teach successfully several months each year, till he com- 
menced his professional studies. He entered this col- 
lege as a Freshman in the autumn of 1819, and after 
remaining here two years he removed, with other stu- 
dents, to Amherst College, then recently established, 
where he was graduated in 1823, in a class of five, — be- 
ing the second class that had left that institution. He 
was, in one respect, the oldest graduate of Amherst, re- 
ceiving the first regular diploma. At that time Amherst 
could confer no degrees, because of having obtained 
no charter. As Mr. Allen had engaged to take charge 
of an academy whose by-laws required of its principal 
a college diploma, he went to Union College, whose 
Commencement came a week earlier than that at Am- 
herst; and having passed satisfactory examinations and 
been admitted by the faculty into the Senior class, 
graduated with it and duly obtained his diploma. It 
was during his Senior year, in a time of special reli- 
gious interest, that he first became personally interested 
in religion, and in the winter after graduation he made 
a public profession of religion in Princeton. After 
leaving college, he had charge for one year of what is 
now called Lawrence Academy, in Groton, Massachu- 
setts. It was during this year that his attention was 
turned to the ministry, and in the fall of 1824 he en- 
tered Andover Theological Seminary, from which he 
graduated in 1827. On May 21 of that year he was 
ordained at Westminster, Massachusetts, Dr. Woods 
of Andover preaching the sermon ; and on the 6th of the 
following month he, with his wife, embarked from Bos- 
ton, as a missionary of the American Board, for Cal- 
cutta, where he arrived on the 21st of September. 

[109] 



Williams College and Missions 

After spending some weeks here, he proceeded to Bom- 
bay, where he arrived November 27. He was stationed 
here for some years, engaged in preaching and estab- 
lishing schools. In 1831 he, with Rev. Hollis Read 
(Williams 1826), visited the Deccan to ascertain a 
suitable place for a new station. They selected Ahmed- 
nagar, 190 miles east of Bombay. The new station 
was for a time under the care of Mr. Read, but subse- 
quently was given to the charge of Mr. Allen. After 
the death of Mrs. Allen, in 1832, he returned with his 
orphan child to this country, arriving in Salem, May, 
1833. He returned to his field the same year. In the 
autumn of 1834 he visited Jalna, 120 miles northeast 
of Ahmednagar, and made a singular discovery of a 
native Christian society of forty or fifty members, with- 
out any pastor. They were connected with the British 
officers as servants, and had come from districts in the 
Madras Presidency which were more or less under mis- 
sionary influence. On his return journey from Jalna 
he visited the celebrated excavations at Ellora, a part 
of his description of which may be read with interest. 
"These excavations," he writes, "were designed as places 
of worship. The largest of them is called Kylas. 
Here a court is excavated in the mountain, the entrance 
into which is through a gateway on the west side, where 
the mountain gradually slopes away to the plain. The 
court is 247 feet long, and 150 feet wide. The height 
of the walls, composed of the living rock, varies from 
thirty or forty to one hundred feet, where the moun- 
tain is highest at the east end of the court. In these 
walls are several large excavated rooms and halls, which 
were designed for purposes connected with the temple. 
A large mass of rock was left standing near the middle 
of the court, which was then cut down on all sides to the 
size of the temple. This was then completed internally 
by excavating the rooms requisite to complete the de- 

[110] 



Biographical Sketches 

sign. The external sides of the temple, even to the top, 
which is ninety feet high, are covered with images of 
gods, men, and animals of different sizes, all carved in 
the rock. The walls and pillars in the inside are also 
covered with images of various kinds and sizes, carved 
in the same manner. In the great hall four rows of 
pillars are left to support the immense weight of the 
rock above. Thus the temple, with all its images, is it- 
self a part of the mountain. The ceiling of the great 
hall was once covered with cement, on which were 
drawn, in glowing colors, paintings descriptive of 
Hindu mythology." 

During the years 1834-1836 Mr. Allen made many 
missionary tours for the purpose of circulating the 
Scriptures and tracts through the Mahratta country. 
In the year 1838 he revised an edition of the whole 
Bible in Mahratta, he himself translating portions of 
the Old Testament, being now the mission's editorial 
superintendent of the press, and having been chosen a 
member of the committee of the Bombay Bible Society. 
The American Mission press at Bombay, with which 
he was connected many years, employed most of the 
time over 100 persons, and printed annually from 
8,000,000 to 12,000,000 of pages. Besides the work 
connected with the press, and his labors of preaching, 
itinerating, and distributing tracts and the Scriptures, 
Mr. Allen did much in establishing schools. In Decem- 
ber, 1840, he reported that there were in Bombay four 
schools for boys, with over 300 pupils, and four for 
girls, with about 100 pupils. These arduous labors to- 
gether with the effects of a warm climate, for twenty- 
five years, so impaired his health that he was advised 
by physicians and the Prudential Committee to return 
home for a period of rest. This he did in 1853, mak- 
ing a short trip to Palestine and England, and arriving 
in Boston in June of that year. He was never able to 

[ill] 



Williams College and Missions 

resume his missionary labors, and after a time his con- 
nection with the Board was dissolved. He was enabled 
to do some writing and publishing, and from 1856 to 
1863 he preached at different places; being one year 
at Westford, and two years at Wenham, Massachu- 
setts. He died from congestion of the lungs July 17, 
1863, at Lowell, Massachusetts, where he had resided 
since 1860. 

In his volume on "India," Dr. Anderson has this 
to say of him: "Dr. Allen possessed a strong mind and 
sound judgment, and there were great industry and 
thoroughness in the use of his powers. . . . He 
was familiar with the Mahratta language, and during 
the twenty years of his connection with the Translation 
Committee of the Bombay Bible Society, one-half of 
which time he was its Secretary, he performed a most 
important service in the revision of the Mahratta 
Scriptures. The printing had advanced through the 
second book of Samuel when he left Bombay, and ar- 
rangements were made for progress in the work dur- 
ing his absence. The present Mahratta version of the 
Bible owes much to his labors. His associates were im- 
pressed with the value of the influence he exerted, 
through the press and otherwise, on the general mind of 
the Mahratta people." 

Dr. Allen possessed by nature a great thirst for 
knowledge, and few men were so thoroughly informed, 
not only in the history of our country, but as to all mat- 
ters relating to India and England. He excelled as 
a mathematician and as a linguist, and had a most te- 
nacious memory. He had a mind which was well bal- 
anced, and adapted to dealing with the principles of 
philosophy or the practical details of business. His 
style of preaching was described as plain and practical, 
— instructive rather than rhetorical. 

In 1854 he received from Amherst College the hon- 



Biographical Sketches 

orary degree of Doctor of Divinity; at the time of his 
leaving India he was a member of the Royal Asiatic 
Society, and for several years before his death he 
was an active member of the American Oriental 
Society. 

On the 23d of May, 1827, he was married to Miss 
Myra Wood, daughter of Abel Wood, Esq., at West- 
minster, Massachusetts. She died in Bombay, Febru- 
ary 5, 1831, leaving one child. She had been a most 
devoted and useful member of the mission, and had en- 
deared herself to all who knew her. Rev. John Wilson, 
a Scottish missionary, preached the funeral sermon. 
An interesting memoir of Mrs. Allen was published by 
the Massachusetts Sabbath-school Society and had an 
extensive circulation. 

He next married Miss Orpah Graves, who had 
been connected for some time with the mission of the 
Mahrattas. She was a sister of Rev. Allen Graves, 
who, with his wife, Mrs. Mary Graves, had been con- 
nected with the same mission since 1818. She died at 
Bombay June 5, 1842. 

He was married, thirdly, in Bombay, December 12, 
1843, to Miss Azubah C. Condit, a sister of Mrs. 
Nevius. She had sailed from New York, in 1836, with 
her brother-in-law and sister, as an assistant missionary, 
to Netherlands, India, and at the time of her marriage 
to Mr. Allen had been for some time connected with 
the mission of the Board in Borneo. She died at Bom- 
bay, after a residence of only a few months there, June 
11, 1844. An obituary notice of her is in the Mission- 
ary Herald for 1844. 

His only child, Myron O. Allen, the issue of the 
first marriage, was graduated with high honors at Yale 
in 1852; studied medicine, and died in 1861, two years 
before his father, greatly lamented by all who knew 
him. 



Williams College and Missions 

Besides his journal and letters which appeared in 
the Missionary Herald, and several articles printed in 
periodicals, Dr. Allen was the author of several useful 
tracts in the Mahratta language. In 1856, he also 
published a "History of India, Ancient and Modern," 
an octavo volume of over 600 pages, which was very 
favorably received by the press, both in this country and 
in England. 

CLASS OF 1824 
William Hervey was born at Kingsborough, 
Warren County, New York, January 22, 1799. He 
entered college in 1820, his Freshman year thus being 
the last year of the administration of President Moore, 
during all of whose presidency the subject of the re- 
moval of the college was agitated. In consequence 
of this agitation the number of students fell off, the 
class of 1824 numbering but fifteen members. One of 
the members, however, was Mark Hopkins. Though 
about one-half of the students were professing Chris- 
tians, religion in the college was at a low ebb. In 1824, 
however, a deep seriousness pervaded the whole col- 
lege, but there was only one conversion. Professor 
Albert Hopkins, in his article on "Revivals of Religion 
in Williams College," attributes to Professor Dewey 
the remark, "Is it possible that God has shaken this col- 
lege to its center to bring out one conversion?" To 
this Professor Hopkins replies: "We might, however, 
remark, as in the case of Hall, that that conversion 
was worth this; yes, and infinitely more. It took place 
in the person of William Hervey, who afterwards died 
in India; and who, for simplicity and purity of heart 
and life, and devotion to the great interests of the mis- 
sionary work, has had few superiors. His name is em- 
balmed in the memory of many here, who afterwards 
witnessed how holily and unbiamably he behaved him- 

[H4] 



Biographical Sketches 

self; and although he fell an early prey to death, it is 
believed that his life told sensibly on the great work of 
evangelizing the world. It was thought by Dr. Griffin 
that the idea of the annual fast for the conversion of 
the world originated with him." 

In college Hervey was a member of the Mills Theo- 
logical Society, and of the Philotechnian Society, of 
which he was one of the presidents, and also one of the 
secretaries. He was a superior scholar, and was grad- 
uated with Phi Beta Kappa rank, his appointment 
being a Philosophical Oration. He was one of the 
speakers at Commencement, September 1, 1824, the 
subject of his address being, "The Precession of 
the Equinoxes." Mark Hopkins was the Valedictorian 
of the class. 

After graduation, Hervey taught for a year in 
Blooming Grove and Albany, New York, when he was 
appointed tutor in the college, which position he held 
for the year 1825-6. To tutor Hervey 's character and 
influence was due very much of the success achieved in 
carrying forward the revival of that year. Of his influ- 
ence in that work, Professor Hopkins says, "Firm, con- 
sistent, mild, yet ardent, his example was one 
uncommonly pure and dignified, and carried great 
weight with it at that time." 

The next three years were spent in studying theol- 
ogy in the seminary at Princeton. The reading of the 
life of David Brainerd while he was in the seminary 
is said to have awakened in him a desire to engage in 
foreign mission work. He was ordained as a mission- 
ary in Park Street Church, Boston, in September, 1829. 
On June 30, 1830, he married Elizabeth Hawley 
Smith, of Hadley, Massachusetts, sister of the wife of 
Rev. John Dunbar (Williams 1832), who was a mis- 
sionary to the Pawnees from 1834 to 1847. On August 
2, 1830, he and his wife, together with Hollis Read 

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Williams College and Missions 

(Williams 1826), who had been a college mate, and 
William Ramsey (Princeton 1826), with their wives, 
embarked at Boston for Calcutta, arriving there De- 
cember 25, and at Bombay March 7, 1831. In Decem- 
ber of that year, Mr. Hervey, along with Messrs. 
Graves and Read, and Babajee, a Brahman convert, 
commenced the station at Ahmednagar. This city, 
which is situated on the table-land of the Ghauts, in a 
plain twelve or fifteen miles northeast from Bombay, 
was an important place for various reasons. It was 
estimated to have a population of 50,000, which was 
increasing on account of its having recently become a 
military station, near which was a cantonment of about 
1000 English soldiers, chiefly artillery. In the vicinity 
and easy of access were many villages, containing each 
from 100 to several thousands of people. It had been 
once the seat of the Mussulman power of that part of 
India, and, to judge from its palaces, mosques, aque- 
ducts, and numerous ruins, had been a place of great 
splendor. The mission, however, suffered many re- 
verses. Mrs. Hervey had died of cholera, May 3, 1831, 
and Mr. Hervey died of the same disease, on May 13, 
of the following year; and Mr. Graves, unable to live 
in India, sailed for America, in August, with his wife 
and the orphan child of Mr. Hervey, arriving in Boston 
January, 1833. The Missionary Hera'd for Decem- 
ber, 1832, contains a letter written by his college mate, 
Hollis Read, to the afflicted parents of Mr. Hervey, 
and giving an account of his last moments. 

Mr. Hervey was buried in the English burying- 
ground at Ahmednagar. The funeral was attended 
by Rev. Mr. Jackson, the English chaplain, who took 
part in the services; by the commandant of the station, 
the physician, and most of the officers of the military. 

Although the period of Mr. Hervey's service was 
but fourteen months, that these months were filled with 

[116] 




MARK HOPKINS 



Biographical Sketches 

unremitting and useful work may be inferred from 
these extracts from a joint letter written from Ahmed- 
nagar by Messrs. Graves, Hervey, and Read: "Since we 
came here, we have had statedly three services in Mah- 
ratta, on the Sabbath. One early in the morning, with 
from 150 to 200 blind, lame, leprous, aged, and other- 
wise infirm and disabled persons, who assemble to 
receive grain furnished for their support by the benevo- 
lence of the English Government. . . . We have one 
service, for natives, at our house, at 10 o'clock a. m., 
at which we have commonly had from ten to thirty per- 
sons present, most of them, in some way, engaged in 
our employment. The other Mahratta service, on the 
Sabbath, is held in the afternoon, in a house, or shed, 
built for travellers, near the bazaar. The number of 
attendants varies from fifteen to forty. . . . 

"We have had one girls' school in operation about 
two months; it is generously supported by the benevo- 
lent ladies in this place." 

Dr. Anderson, in his volume on "India," thus wrote 
of him: "Mr. Hervey's illness accomplished its painful 
mission in a few hours, and such was its violence that 
he was scarcely able to express more than his confidence 
of soon meeting his Redeemer and Lord. He pos- 
sessed a fine and well-cultivated mind, was able to 
converse in the language of the country, and had awak- 
ened high hopes as to his future usefulness." 

The connection of Reverend Mark Hopkins, D.D., 
with the American Board of Commissioners for For- 
eign Missions (he was president of that society for 
thirty years) and with the college of which the mis- 
sionaries appreciated in this volume were graduates 
(he was its president for thirty-six years) affords good 
reason for introducing here some account of his rela- 
tions to the great society under whose auspices many 

[117] 



Williams College and Missions 

of these graduates entered upon missionary work. He 
became president of the society in 1857, a year remem- 
bered by old men as one of great financial depression. 
He was quite ready to resign the duties of the office 
years before his death, but the leaders in the society, 
duly honoring the dignity, tact, and power with which 
he presided over the annual meetings, were never will- 
ing to accept the resignation, and his official connec- 
tion with the society was terminated only by his death 
in 1887. 

His supreme interest was in the establishment of 
the Kingdom of God. The unity of the moral system 
under which we live, the breadth of divine law and di- 
vine love, the wonderful adaptation of Christianity to 
bring men into a condition of righteousness and peace, 
the significance and grandeur of missionary work, filled 
a large place in his thought. It was the wide relations 
of the missionary work as the highest expression of de- 
votion to the Divine Redeemer, as the logical outcome 
of the consecration of human lives to the upbuilding of 
character and to the uplifting of neglected and de- 
graded races, that appealed most strongly to him. The 
truth that Christ himself was the first great missionary 
and that no one could be a true Christian without affin- 
ity with the plainly missionary purpose of his life, was 
constantly in his mind when he confronted the difficul- 
ties of missionary enterprise. His thoughts moved in 
dignity and calmness along the great ranges of philos- 
ophy and religion, and those who heard his addresses 
at the meetings of the Board were always lifted from 
the petty and commonplace to large vision and stirred 
to a nobler devotion. He seemed to grasp conceptions 
of the unity of the universe, never burdened by confus- 
ing details, never dismayed by anomalies or mysteries. 
His mind was always open to the possibility of great 
revelations in the future which should harmonize appar- 

[118] 



Biographical Sketches 

ent contradictions and enlarge our understanding of 
the meaning of sentient, moral life. As illustrating 
both his absolute confidence in the perfection of Divine 
government and his expectation of revelations in char- 
acter, sentences from the address made before the 
Board at Columbus in 1881 may be quoted. 

"It might seem as if this perfection which can be 
wrought out in our humanity by Christianity was but 
one form of that perfection which is to be revealed 
in the works of God throughout the vast dominion of 
which I have spoken ; throughout that vast system, that 
moral and social system, which corresponds in extent 
with that physical system which is revealed; and so I 
think that while there shall be gathered at last and pre- 
served, as Paul says, a holy church, and every man shall 
be "perfect" and the church shall be "spotless, without 
spot or blemish or any such thing," there will be other 
forms of perfection in other departments of God's uni- 
verse. And when the great day of restitution of all 
things shall come and God shall vindicate his govern- 
ment, there may be seen to be coming in from other 
departments of the universe a long procession of angelic 
forms, great white legions from Sirius, from Arcturus, 
and the chambers of the South, gathering round the 
throne of God and that center around which the uni- 
verse revolves." 

Long before he wrote the lectures on "The Evi- 
dences of Christianity," the omniscience and omnipres- 
ence revealed in uniform physical law had but one 
meaning for him; these meant God, and equally the 
conscience, obedience to which when fully enlightened 
brings peace, — conscience, the supreme faculty in man, 
revealing moral law, meant God. Contemplating the 
universe as one great whole, as revealing reason on 
every side, he rose to the conception of holiness and 
blessedness as the ultimate goal, and was often inspired 

[119] 



Williams College and Missions 

by the magnificence of God's dominion, or, seeing the 
degradation of humanity, was deeply moved by the 
amazing scheme of redemption and its power to save. 

That anything else could reform society, that any 
human devices could transform degraded races, that 
great enterprises in transportation, manufacture, com- 
merce, or scientific progress, however much they might 
alleviate suffering, promote comfort, or exalt intellect, 
could heal the wounds of sin or give peace to one guilty 
soul, was for his discerning mind an impossibility. His 
breadth of view, his analysis of mental processes, his 
correct estimate of the helplessness of human nature to 
right itself, his presentation of the sublime meaning of 
God's government as law, and his love, made the dis- 
courses with which we may say the annual meetings of 
the Board were wont to close the great feature of the 
convention. There might be a larger knowledge of 
the conditions of individual missions than he displayed ; 
there might be more finely turned phrases and greater 
wealth of historical knowledge introduced into dis- 
course than he employed, but for the enlargement of 
the vision of his hearers, for the direct and cogent en- 
forcement of the great meaning of salvation and of 
missionary effort for that purpose, for the inspiration 
of a vast audience by the noblest conceptions and to 
the heartiest consecration in the work of missions, no 
discourses could have been more effective than his. As 
illustrating both the grandeur of his conception of the 
Christian system and his clearness of statement as to 
what Christianity effects for the individual, and hence 
its power to transform any society, an extract from the 
address delivered at Lowell in 1880 (he was then sev- 
enty-eight years old) may be given. 

"And one point farther. Not only does Christian- 
ity thus enable individuals and society to reach their 
highest possibilities, but it gives the highest conception 

[120] 



Biographical Sketches 

possible of what those possibilities are. It gives a gran- 
deur to the destiny of man, both individual and social, 
which the imagination had never conceived and never 
could have conceived. In this respect it is analogous 
to nature, and stands over against nature precisely as 
nature does over against the unaided thought of man. 
Not farther does the universe, as revealed by the tele- 
scope in its grandeur, and by the microscope in its mi- 
nuteness and finish, transcend whatever has been con- 
ceived by the unaided imagination, than does the Chris- 
tian heaven transcend in knowledge and purity and 
glory anything of which the unaided imagination had 
conceived. It gives us, therefore, the highest concep- 
tion possible of the grandeur and progress of our na- 
ture, the very best. 

"Now the difficulty of receiving this lies in its very 
greatness. What! You take a savage, a cannibal, a 
drunkard from our streets? Yes, take one of us. 
What! take such creatures as we are, that are going 
down into the dust of death, and deliver them from sin 
and from evil, and raise them up to a dignity and pu- 
rity and glory like this? Yes, just that. No matter 
what the incrustations may be upon the diamond ; there 
is power in the glorious gospel of the blessed God to 
fashion and to polish it, and to set it as a gem in the 
diadem of the Redeemer. That is what Christianity 
does. If we look at a man, it would seem to be impossi- 
ble. It is too great to be believed. But if we look at 
the love of God in Jesus Christ, it could not be believed 
if it were not so great. It is required by that love and 
by the grandeur of the system to be so great. 'He that 
delivered up for us his only begotten Son, how shall 
He not with Him freely give us all things V 

"We see, then, beloved Christian friends, what that 
result is towards which God is working, and for which 
He permits us to work together with Him. We are 

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Williams College and Missions 

capable of producing changes. We can cause that to be 
which but for us would not have been. The changes 
which the children of this world seek to produce may 
perhaps all be included in the transfer of matter from 
one place to another, the transfer of property from man 
to man. That is all. That is the business of this world. 
It is a restless sea, always in motion, always the same. 
But we seek to produce moral and spiritual changes, 
and we seek to do three things. 

4 'We seek, in the first place, to do for each indi- 
vidual for whom we labor the best thing. We seek to do 
for him the greatest favor which it is possible for one 
human being to do for another, — that is to say, to lead 
him to know and follow Jesus Christ, to lead him to be 
able to say, as I would humbly say, 'I know 3 — no agnos- 
ticism — 'I know whom I have believed, and that He is 
able to keep that which I have committed unto Him 
against that day.' 

"We wish, in the second place, to found civiliza- 
tions which shall have so much of intelligence and of 
principle that they will not collapse by their own want 
of inherent energy ; that there shall be no alternation of 
civilization, as there always has been, with barbarism; 
no alternation of oppression with anarchy. And we 
wish further to provide material for that higher social 
state in which there shall be love and purity and joy 
and peace before the throne of God for evermore." 

Two years before his death, at the seventy-fifth an- 
niversary, in Boston, 1885, of the founding of the 
Board, he allowed himself to indulge in a backward 
look, recalling his own memories of the Board's work. 
His striking figure, always commanding attention, but 
now ennobled by age, must have greatly added to the 
impressiveness of the reminiscences. A few sentences 
from this address may be given. They show very clearly 
his long-established interest, as well as his pride and 

[122] 



Biographical Sketches 

confidence, in the great missionary work done by the 
society and his abiding faith in the transforming power 
of Christianity. 

"The formation of the American Board in 1810 I 
do not remember, but I do remember the difficulty 
there was in rinding a place for its first missionaries. I 
remember well the sailing of the first missionaries to 
the Sandwich Islands, and the exultation there was, 
when the news came that the natives had already cast 
their idols to the moles and to the bats. From that time 
I have been in sympathy with the movements of the 
Board, have known something of its explorations and 
methods, and have seen the whole heathen world, origi- 
nally closed, opened to the entrance of the gospel. Dur- 
ing this period I have known of the debts of the Board, 
its discouragements, its crises, its deliverances, its tri- 
umphs. I have seen the old school Presbyterian breth- 
ren part from it; then our Dutch brethren; then our 
new school Presbyterian brethren, taking with them 
altogether churches much more numerous and wealthy 
than our own, and yet I have seen the old Board hold 
on its way with no essential diminution of contributions 
or of efficiency till now, in its seventy-fifth year, and out 
of debt, it has expended more than twenty millions of 
dollars in seeking to spread the gospel, and its missions 
belt the globe. 

"It is nothing to boast of that this vast sum has 
been expended without loss, and up to the present time 
with no suspicion of dishonesty. But in times like these 
it may be well to emphasize the fact, and to ask infidel- 
ity, and agnosticism, and all kindred isms, when they 
propose to show an equal sum, freely given, and in- 
trusted to infidels, without security, to be spent for 
benevolent, or, if they prefer the term, for altruistic 
purposes." 

Dr. Hopkins had a fairly complete system of theo- 

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Williams College and Missions 

logical doctrine, but he was never an advocate of his 
system as the one perfect system of belief. He accepted 
the great principle that doctrines may divide, but that 
devotion to the Master and the righteousness which that 
devotion develops always unite, and at Pittsfield in 
1866 he gave expression to this principle in the follow- 
ing words: 

"Let the whole race fix their eyes upon the North 
Star and march onwards with steady gaze upon that 
luminary, and this march will bring them together in 
one vast multitude, over the center of which the object 
of their common regard burns in the firmament. They 
are brought together not because they planned to meet, 
but because they had a common object in view, and 
let the Christians of every name keep their eyes fixed 
upon Jesus Christ, and the divisions of Christendom 
will be known no more." 

When the agitation arose in the Board with respect 
to the sending out of missionaries who had sympathy 
with the belief that to those who have not known of 
Christ in this life He may be made known in a future 
state, Dr. Hopkins was not inclined to favor a course 
which would uniformly reject such applicants. He dis- 
sented emphatically from the setting up of a tribunal 
which should maintain that all who trusted this larger 
hope for the multitudes in past ages who had never 
heard of Christ were never to proclaim the good news 
of God to the perishing races beyond the seas. It was 
not that he accepted the new doctrine himself. That he 
distinctly denied, nor could it be said, as was intimated 
by the chief advocate of exclusion, that "he belonged to 
the class chronically, if not constitutionally, favorable 
to whatever is indefinite in theological statement." His 
own beliefs were clear and definite and were uniformly 
stated with remarkable precision. He never claimed 
omniscience and there is reason to believe that the ques- 

[124] 



Biographical Sketches 

tion as to the ultimate destiny of those living in the 
world without the knowledge of Christ, which has trou- 
bled thinkers through all the ages, was not without its 
mystery to him. He certainly could not bring himself 
to say that everyone who found in what seemed like a 
new speculation some relief from the mystery ought to 
be denied the privilege of doing all he could to spread 
the knowledge of Christ. The sending of one whose 
heart moved his intellect, whose tender pity searched 
for some escape from the eternal punishment of the 
untold millions who have died without any knowledge 
of our Lord, did not seem to him necessarily in every 
case a sacrifice of essential principles or a betrayal of 
the trust of the churches. He favored the proposition 
that the churches, those who gave the money for the 
support of missions, in their councils properly assem- 
bled, should decide on each individual applicant and not 
hand the authority of decision over to a body whose 
chief duty was the administration of the funds. Noth- 
ing could be more foreign to the tendencies of the age 
than this erection of a tribunal over the churches. The 
advocates of such a central and permanent authority 
certainly ignored the truth that those who gave the 
money for the missionary cause had some rights as to 
its disposition. Although the managers of the society 
did not agree with Dr. Hopkins as to these rights, and 
the society sustained the managers, it can hardly be 
denied now that Dr. Hopkins could not have left a 
nobler valedictory than the letter on this subject which 
appeared in the Independent the morning before he 
died. In reading that letter I have often been re- 
minded of the attitude of Lincoln when the Southern 
States had seceded. He summoned troops to the field, 
but the war was not, in his mind, primarily to put an 
end to slavery. He wished to save the Union. If he 
could save it with slavery, he would; if he could not 

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Williams College and Missions 

save it with slavery, slavery must go, but he meant at 
all hazards to preserve the Union. So Dr. Hopkins 
insisted in that letter that the real question was either 
not perceived or was evaded. "It was not whether the 
doctrine is true or false, but whether the Board would 
send out men who had doubts respecting it." There 
was a certain affinity in his mental processes to those 
of Lincoln. The main point for him could not be ob- 
scured. Over and over again in the controversy with 
Douglas, Lincoln brought the discussion back to the 
main point which Douglas had endeavored to obscure. 
The cry of heresy has always been a potent word where- 
with to suppress not merely heresy itself but, too often, 
deviation from inherited tradition. " Humanity sweeps 
onward," and I think to-day few would be found to 
deny that Dr. Hopkins, in his final utterance, repre- 
sented the wiser attitude, the sounder judgment, as well 
as the nobler charity. 

The last annual meeting of the Board which Dr. 
Hopkins attended was at Des Moines, Iowa. He was 
then eighty-four years old and carried into the delibera- 
tions of the society the ripe wisdom and sound discern- 
ment that a long dealing with difficult problems and 
with easily excited minds had developed. The contro- 
versy to which I have referred was then threatening to 
disturb, if not to destroy, the harmonious cooperation 
of the warm friends of missions united in that society. 
With the statesmanlike vision that never failed him and 
with warm fidelity to his convictions, he pleaded for the 
maintenance of the principles of the denomination rep- 
resented in the society and for the catholic sympathies 
which faithful love of the Divine Master calls forth. He 
had had a great training for just such an emergency 
and the imagination readily conceives of him as on that 
occasion laying the highest fruits of a patient, heroic, 
and useful life at the feet of Him, likeness to whom 

[126] 



Biographical Sketches 

among 3 T oung men and degraded peoples he had ever 
sought to produce. 

The following year he passed quietly away. He 
died sitting, erect and stately, as if in vigorous man- 
hood. He was a unique figure in all relations, and was 
he not commanding even in death ? What he was to the 
family and to the college, that he was to the great mis- 
sionary movement, always at the head. ''King of men" 
"by the grace of God" and leader of saints "by the faith 
that overcometh." Franklin Carter. 



CLASS OF 1826 

Hollis Read, son of Thomas and Betsey (Merri- 
field) Read and grandson of Thomas Read, was born in 
Newfane, Vermont, August 26, 1802. His father was 
a farmer. The marked characteristics of his parents 
were piety, honesty, industry, and frugality. The im- 
migrant ancestors of Mr. Read were John Read and his 
wife, Sarah, who came from Devonshire, England, to 
America in 1630. John Read lived in Weymouth, 
Massachusetts, first, and in 1644 settled in Rehoboth, 
Massachusetts, being one of the original proprietors of 
that town. Several of the ancestors held office in church 
and state, and several in collateral lines were officers in 
the Revolutionary War. 

Mr. Read fitted for college mostly under private 
tutors at Dummerston and West Brattleboro, Ver- 
mont. He entered college as a Sophomore in 1823. 
Among his classmates were Albert Hopkins, John 
Morgan, and Nicholas Murray. During his college 
course there evidently prevailed an enthusiasm for mis- 
sionary service. This was due, in part, to the religious 
fervor of President Griffin, and in part to the revival 
of 1825-26. The classes which were, for a time, contem- 
poraneous with that of Mr. Read sent eleven men into 

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Williams College and Missions 

foreign fields, the class of 1828 alone having five 
members who became missionaries. Mr. Read was a 
superior student, and at Commencement delivered an 
oration on "Antediluvian Relics.' ' 

After graduation, he taught a year in the academy 
at Bennington, Vermont, and then spent two years at 
Princeton Theological Seminary. He was licensed to 
preach by the Franklin Association, Massachusetts, 
May 13, 1829, and then spent some time at Andover 
Theological Seminary. On September 24, 1829, he was 
ordained by Presbytery at Old South Church, Boston, 
at the same time with William Hervey (Williams 
1824). 

On August 2, 1830, he and his wife, along with 
Messrs. Hervey and Ramsey and their wives, sailed for 
Calcutta, arriving there December 25, of the same year, 
and reaching Bombay March 7. He was a missionary 
of the American Board at Bombay and Ahmednagar 
from 1830 to 1835. On account of the failure of Mrs. 
Read's health, he returned to this country in 1835, and 
did not again engage in mission work abroad. He, 
however, spent two years as agent of the Board, after 
which he served one year as stated supply of the Pres- 
byterian church at Babylon, Long Island, five years as 
pastor of the Congregational Church at Derby, Con- 
necticut, one year as agent of the American Tract So- 
ciety, and six years as pastor of the Congregational 
Church at New Preston, Connecticut. He then en- 
gaged in teaching four years at Orange, New Jersey, in 
which period he devoted some time to literary work, 
and was also agent of the Society for the Conversion of 
Jews. After preaching nine years as stated supply of 
the Presbyterian Church at Cranford, New Jersey, he 
removed to Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he rendered 
service in the neighboring churches. Besides the above- 
named services, he acted, for brief periods, as agent of 

[128] 



Biographical Sketches 

the Freedmen's Relief Association and of Lincoln Uni- 
versity. He subsequently resided for a time at Ben- 
nington, Vermont, and at Somerville, New Jersey. 

After the death of Mrs. Read, February 19, 1883, 
his health gradually failed, and the subsequent death of 
his only daughter, who had been the head of a young 
ladies' school in Elizabeth for twenty years, was a blow 
from which, with his weight of years, he did not recover. 
He died of asthenia at the home of his only son, Rev. 
E. G. Read, D.D., of Somerville, New Jersey, on April 
7, 1887. He was buried in Bennington, Vermont. 

Although Mr. Read's period of service in the for- 
eign field was a comparatively brief one, it was, never- 
theless, a valuable service. The important station of 
Ahmednagar was first established and occupied by him 
in conjunction with Messrs. Graves and Hervey, and 
Babajee, a native convert. Of the church which was 
formed there in the early part of 1833, Mr. Read be- 
came pastor, and for a time he and Mrs. Read were the 
only Americans there. Mr. Read performed an im- 
portant work in the way of visitation. He, with Baba- 
jee, visited more than fifty villages within a hundred 
miles of their station, none of which, with two excep- 
tions, had been previously visited by a missionary. The 
year 1833 was notable for these journeys. In January, 
Mr. Read and Babajee visited nineteen villages north- 
east of Ahmednagar that had never before been visited 
by a missionary. In March, he crossed the country 
200 miles to the Mahableshwar Hills. In December 
he, in company with Mr. Ramsey, spent fourteen days 
in visiting mission schools on the continent, and then 
commenced an extended tour in Concan and Deccan. 
After a time, when Mr. Ramsey returned to Bombay, 
Mr. Read, in company with Mr. Allen, made other 
extended tours, the whole distance travelled by him 
being more than 700 miles. From October, 1833, to 

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Williams College and Missions 

July, 1834, Mr. Read travelled about 1100 miles, and 
preached in about 125 towns and villages, in about half 
of which the gospel had probably never been preached. 
Although he travelled unarmed and without a guard 
among a people not many years before addicted to 
plunder, he made his journeys with safety. These jour- 
neys were undertaken for the purpose of preaching and 
distributing books and tracts. 

The journal and letters of Mr. Read written during 
his journeys were published in the Missionary Herald 
and are still interesting reading. The following extract 
is from a letter written May 25, 1834: "The whole dis- 
tance travelled during the last season cannot be less 
than 3000 miles, extending almost through the length 
and breadth of the Mahratta country. . . . We have 
not met with the least obstacle in travelling in the do- 
minions of the Nizam, and probably should not, had 
we proceeded to Hyderabad. There is perhaps less se- 
curity from marauders here than under the English 
government. We travelled without arms or sepoys and 
met with neither insult nor harm. We owed our security, 
humanly speaking, no doubt, to the humble style of 
our travelling. An Englishman, with a large retinue 
and the appearance of money or plate, would not be 
safe without a guard. Hence the advantage of being 
without 'two coats' or a 'scrip.' " 

During the more than half a century which he lived 
after returning to this country, he was constantly occu- 
pied, not only in the positions that have been enumer- 
ated, but in writing and publishing books. 

An obituary notice contains this description of the 
man and his striking characteristics: "Of great height, 
well built and physically strong in his early days, he 
rarely knew what sickness was till old age crept on 
apace. Of great industry and perseverance, in dead 
earnest on all moral questions, he had also an inquisi- 

[130] 



Biographical Sketches 

tive mind which ever delighted at the progress of the 
arts and sciences. He was full of interest in new things 
until the last. A grand character has fallen asleep, and 
all who knew him loved him well." 

He was married in Bennington, Vermont, June 24, 
1830, to Caroline, daughter of Aaron and Lucinda 
(Moody) Hubbell, and granddaughter of Elnathan 
and Mehitable (Sherwood) Hubbell, and a descendant 
from Richard Hubbell, who came from Wales to Con- 
necticut between 1645 and 1647. Their children were 
a daughter, Catharine Henrietta Read, who died in 
1886, and a son, Rev. Edward Griffin Read, D.D., a 
graduate of Princeton University (1861), and of 
Princeton Seminary (1865), now residing in Plain- 
field, New Jersey. 

Mr. Read published: "Read and Ramsey's Journal 
in India, edited by William Ramsey" (Philadelphia, 
1835) ; "The Christian Brahman, or Memoir of the 
Converted Brahman, Babajee, 2 Vols." (1836) ; "The 
Hand of God in History: or Divine Providence his- 
torically illustrated," (1st Vol. 1849, 2nd Vol. 1855) ; 
"Memoirs and Sermons of Rev. William J. Armstrong, 
D.D., late Secretary of the A. B. C. F. M." (1853) ; 
"Commerce and Christianity: A Prize Essay; Subject, 
The Moral Power of the Sea; or the Relation of Com- 
merce to the Spread of the Gospel" (1856); "India 
and Its People, Ancient and Modern; Conquests of 
India; Moral, Civil and Religious Conditions; The Se- 
poy Mutiny; illustrated" (1858) ; "The Palace of the 
Great King; or the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of 
God illustrated in the Multiplicity and Variety of His 
Works" (1859); "The Coming Crisis of the World; 
or the Great Battle, and the Golden Age" (1861); 
"The Negro Problem Solved; or Africa as she was, 
as she is, and as she shall be" (1864) ; "Footprints of 
Satan" (1866). He also left several books in manu- 

[131] 



Williams College and Missions 

script. The most notable and the most widely circu- 
lated of his publications was "The Hand of God in 
History," of which some 60,000 copies were sold in this 
country, and which was reprinted in London and 
Edinburgh. 

CLASS OF 1827 

Nathan Brown was born in New Ipswich, New 
Hampshire, June 22, 1807. He was the oldest child 
of Nathan and Betsey (Goldsmith) Brown, and the 
grandson of Josiah and Sarah (Wright) Brown. A 
brother, William Goldsmith Brown, was for three years 
a member of the class of 1837. The ancestry is traced 
back to John Brown, who came over to this country 
a few years after his brother, Peter, of the Mayflower, 
and settled in Duxbury, Massachusetts. John Brown, 
the martyr, was probably a descendant of Peter of the 
Mayflower. 

Just before the Revolutionary War broke out, the 
grandfather, Josiah, and his brother, John, then young 
men, removed with their families from Concord, 
Massachusetts, to New Ipswich, where they settled near 
each other on new land. They took with them into their 
forest homes, strength, energy, patriotism, and strong 
religious faith. Josiah Brown, the grandfather, had 
seen active military service in his younger days, being 
first lieutenant of a company of New Ipswich min- 
ute-men at the breaking out of the Revolutionary War. 
He fought at Bunker Hill, where his company did good 
execution, and was the last to leave the field. It is also 
believed that Lieutenant Brown fired the final shot 
before the retreat. This Josiah Brown, in after years, 
was prominent in the affairs of the town. 

The Brown family were active in building up a 
church of their own faith in Whitingham, Vermont, to 
which the parents of the subject of our sketch had re- 

[132] 



Biographical Sketches 

moved soon after his birth. Of this church Nathan, the 
father, and Josiah the grandfather, were deacons. The 
son became a member of this church in very early years, 
being baptized when he was but nine years of age. The 
development of his religious nature was almost preco- 
cious. The nice distinctions between right and wrong 
were felt almost in his infancy, and his first religious 
impressions went back as far as he could remember. No 
small factor in the development of the boy's character 
was the influence of the mother, from whom he inherited 
his spirituality, his opposition to all wrong, and his sym- 
pathy with the weak. 

With the guidance of such parents, and the compan- 
ionship of a brother and two sisters, enjoying the toils 
and sports of pioneer life, the lad grew up in an en- 
vironment well fitted to develop the homely virtues of 
industry, honesty, and kindness. Being destined by 
his parents for a farmer's life, he worked in the fields in 
summer and attended school in winter. But even when 
engaged in manual labor his mind seemed absorbed in 
the world of thought and discovery. Visions of a new 
sort of life were opened to him by the discovery among 
his father's books of a copy of "iE sop's Fables," with 
the Latin and English printed in parallel columns. 
College came to be thought of, and an arrangement 
was made for Nathan to live in the family of Rev. 
Thomas H. Wood (Williams 1799), the Congrega- 
tional minister of the adjoining town of Halifax, to be 
fitted for college, the lad in payment doing "chores" 
about the premises. He also aided himself by teaching 
school, his first term being at Monroe, Massachusetts, 
when he was but fifteen years of age. 

In 1824, when he was seventeen, he entered the 
Sophomore class at Williams. President Griffin was en- 
tering upon the fourth year of his administration, Mark 
Hopkins had just been graduated and was about to 

[ 138 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

become a tutor, David Dudley Field, Albert Hopkins, 
and John Morgan were college mates. In those days the 
summer term continued through July and August, the 
Commencement coming in September. There were 
long winter vacations, that students who wished might 
teach a winter school. Brown aided himself in that way 
to secure his education. He had to economize both 
time and money and, in competition with more thor- 
oughly-prepared classmates, he had to work hard. 
Mathematics was his favorite study, but he was good 
in all, and at the end of his course he stood in the first 
rank. Some of the students said of him: "He left the 
lime-kilns of Vermont, washed up his face, and came 
down here to take the valedictory." His graduating 
oration was on the subject, "Infidelity not Philoso- 
phy." On the same program appears the name of Mr. 
Tutor Hopkins, who delivered the Master's Oration on 
the subject, "Mystery." In college Mr. Brown had 
been a member of the Philotechnian Society, of which 
he was at different times secretary, vice-president, and 
president. The spirit of the time may be caught from 
these sentences of President Griffin's Baccalaureate 
Sermon: "I long to see every class go forth in the 
spirit of a Mills, a Richards, a Robbins, determined to 
make their influence felt on the other side of the globe. 
Will you not, my dear pupils, carry this spirit with 
you, will not every one of you say, with an eye lifted to 
your dying Lord, 'Here am I soul and body, here am 
I, send me, if it be to the ends of the earth.' " It was 
owing, in part, to the effect of such preaching as this 
that revivals occurred so frequently in those years, and 
that Mr. Brown and ten of his college mates became 
missionaries in foreign fields, while from his own class 
of thirty members, twenty-four were candidates for the 
ministry. It is said that it was under the inspiration of 
one of Dr. Griffin's sermons that Mr. Brown, when 

[134] 




EDWARD DORR GRIFFIN 



Biographical Sketches 

nineteen years of age, wrote the poem entitled "The 
Missionary," afterwards published as "The Mission- 
ary's Call." The spirit of the hymn is shown in the fol- 
lowing lines: 

"My soul is not at rest. There comes a strange 
And secret whisper to my spirit, like 
A dream of night, that tells me I am on 
Enchanted ground. . . . 
.... The voice of my departed Lord, 
Go, teach all nations, from the eastern world 
Comes on the night air, and awakes my ear." 

After graduation, he taught in different places for 
three years, and in 1831 became editor of the Vermont 
Telegraph, a weekly religious newspaper. Among the 
topics plainly discussed in the columns of this paper 
were slavery and secret societies, which were vigorously 
opposed. 

In January, 1832, Mr. Brown resigned his connec- 
tion with the Telegraph and entered Newton Theologi- 
cal Seminary, having already decided to go as a mis- 
sionary to Burma. On the 15th of August of the same 
year he was ordained at Rutland, Vermont, and with 
his wife embarked for Burma on the 22nd of De- 
cember following, under appointment of the Baptist 
Triennial Convention. For two years he was sta- 
tioned at Maulmain, Burma, and then was ap- 
pointed by the mission to commence, with Mr. O. 
T. Cutter, a new mission in Assam. He had 
spent two years of precious time in acquiring the 
Burman language and now had to learn the Shan 
language. The journey was a long and perilous one, 
through the Hoogly, Ganges, and Brahmaputra rivers. 
From Calcutta to their station, 800 miles distant, the 
missionaries had to provide their own means of convey- 
ance, which was native boats, dragged most of the way 
against a strong current by means of a rope attached to 

[135] 



Williams College and Missions 

the mast. The station, which they reached after four- 
months of peril, was Sadiya, on the Brahmaputra, near 
the borders of China, 400 miles north of Ava. The life 
here was a pioneer life, and less heroic souls might have 
turned back from this isolation among savage tribes. 
The experience of his youth in the pioneer life of the 
Vermont wilderness stood him in good stead. His Yan- 
kee ingenuity solved the problem of how to build houses 
for shelter and for school purposes, with laborers whose 
language was strange and who knew no use of tools. 
To add to his trials, he had found that the Shans, for 
whom he had been preparing to labor by learning their 
language, lived "beyond the mountains/' and that the 
people immediately around him were the valley Assa- 
mese, speaking an entirely different language. Here, 
among savage tribes, with no grammar or dictionary, 
he set about learning the language. He could soon 
commence the work of translation. Books and tracts 
were distributed, schools established and zayats were 
built, where the gospel could be preached by the way- 
side. But all this constructive work was rudely inter- 
rupted when, in 1839, Sadiya was attacked by the 
natives. Many of the people and soldiery were massa- 
cred, and Mr. Brown with his wife and two infant 
children escaped in a canoe in the darkness of night, 
finding protection in the stockade, which was still in pos- 
session of the British troops. As many of the natives of 
Sadiya had been killed or scattered, it was decided to 
remove the mission to Jaipur. Even here they were not 
free from rumors of wars and suffered from intermit- 
tent fever, while the natives were dying with cholera 
or suffering from famine. In the midst of these trials, 
their little boy was threatened with blindness, and to ob- 
tain medical treatment the mother courageously under- 
took the journey of 800 miles to Calcutta in a canoe, 
in a region infested by wild beasts and bands of robbers. 

[136] 



Biographical Sketches 

The journey did not bring the hoped-for relief, and 
soon after the return Mr. and Mrs. Brown were called 
to part with a third child. 

The unhealthiness of the station, and the fact that 
the population was fluctuating and now decreasing, led 
to the removal, in 1841, to the thickly-populated dis- 
trict of Sibsagar. This place, with a population of 
5000, was the center of a hundred villages and was sit- 
uated in a comparatively healthy locality. Here 
the mission was highly successful. While Mr. Brown 
was translating the New Testament, and going about 
practising in the villages, Mrs. Brown was preparing 
school-books and spending three or four hours a day 
in teaching thirty or forty boys. Mr. Brown often 
made missionary tours on foot, sometimes going 
through forests as far as 200 miles. His most impor- 
tant work, however, was the translation of the Scrip- 
tures, and in 1848 he completed the Assamese version 
of the New Testament. 

During the period 1846-1849, Mr. Brown was left 
comparatively alone in his work, Mrs. Brown having 
taken to America their two surviving children and hav- 
ing been detained there during this time, at first by ill 
health and then by work for the mission. 

In 1855, after twenty-two years of toil and suffer- 
ings, both returned to America, where Dr. Brown was 
pronounced "a wreck in body and mind.' , After a rest 
of two years and a partial recovery of health he became 
editor of the American Baptist , a position which he held 
for fifteen years. The term of his editorship was a most 
important period in the history of the nation, and his 
editorials discussed the affairs of government in a vig- 
orous way. His pronounced anti-slavery principles, 
sometimes, occasioned him personal danger. On ac- 
count of his prominence in such discussions he was se- 
lected as one of the committee of three to wait on Presi- 

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Williams College and Missions 

dent Lincoln before the issuing of the Emancipation 
Proclamation. 

In 1872, the wonderful openings in Japan and the 
urgent calls for missionaries again aroused the mission- 
ary spirit in Dr. Brown. Though sixty-five years of 
age, he accepted the appointment of the American Bap- 
tist Missionary Union, and in November set sail for 
Japan, reaching Yokohama February, 1873, having 
been detained for a time in San Francisco. That the 
enthusiasm of his earlier years still glowed in his breast 
may be inferred from what he said on leaving: "If I 
can live ten years and can give the Japanese the New 
Testament, and see a Baptist church of fifty members 
in Yokohama, I shall feel it has paid to send me out." 

While detained in San Francisco, Dr. Brown 
preached various missionary sermons, the last being in 
Union Square Church, Oakland, January 5, the day be- 
fore sailing. Of his manner and personal appearance 
at this time, a reporter gave this account: "Consider- 
ably advanced in years, he has the appearance of one 
who has led an active, and at the same time studious 
life. His face cannot fail to attract attention in every 
educated circle by the strong evidence it bears of 
thought and mental culture. Few foreheads are loftier 
than his and, if not noticeably wide, it is finely devel- 
oped in the region where phrenologists locate the best 
intellectual functions. Hair and whiskers almost white 
give rather a venerable aspect to the face, but beyond 
this there is little to denote age, for his voice is the 
reverse of feeble, and his movements are full of vitality. 
His superiority as a preacher, however, is more in mat- 
ter than in manner. . . . Teeming with information, 
felicitous in language, independent in thought, vigor- 
ously combining logic and rhetoric to strengthen his 
points, and connected and consistent in all the minutiae 
of his discourse, he possesses abilities which render him. 

[138] 



Biographical Sketches 

one of the ablest preachers whom we have heard on this 
course." 

On reaching Japan, Dr. Brown entered upon the 
study of the language with ardor, and in three months 
after his arrival services in Japanese and a Sunday 
Bible class for the natives were already in progress. In 
1879 the translation of the New Testament in vernacu- 
lar Japanese was printed, the first New Testament pub- 
lished in full in that language. 

During his residence in Japan, it was his privilege 
to welcome other laborers to the field and see the estab- 
lishment of seven churches having more than 300 
members. 

He died in Yokohama, January 1, 1886, in the 
79th year of his age. The funeral was attended by 
a large number of people from Tokyo and Yoko- 
hama. Simultaneous with the services held in English 
in the house was held a service in Japanese in the 
Chapel. One of his associates said of him at the fu- 
neral: "During his long missionary career he has liter- 
ally been in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in 
perils of robbers, in perils among his own countrymen, 
in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils 
in the wilderness, in perils in the sea." "The Mission- 
ary's Call" was chanted at the house, and the body was 
borne to the grave by Japanese converts. 

Rev. A. A. Bennett of Yokohama wrote of him, in 
the Baptist Missionary Magazine: "While in matters 
of mission policy he often, rightly or wrongly, felt called 
upon to adopt views different from those of his breth- 
ren, yet he has left an untarnished record, extending 
over three score years and ten, and has set a noble exam- 
ple of ceaseless industry and of self-sacrificing, un- 
flinching adherence to what he believed to be right." 

Dr. Brown, besides being a translator and a 
preacher to the natives, was the author and translator 

[139] 



Williams College and Missions 

of hymns in the languages of Burma, Assam, and 
Japan. His last work was the Japanese Hymn-book, 
on which he worked, when no longer able to use the pen, 
by dictation to his native teacher. 

Dr. Brown was greatly interested in language stu- 
dies, and while in America was, for some time, president 
of "The American Philological Society." When in 
Calcutta, he gave much attention to the plan for print- 
ing the languages of India in Roman characters. He 
also strongly recommended the adoption of the Roman 
alphabet in place of the Chinese characters in writing 
the Japanese language, a plan which has since been 
urged by missionaries, and by the first scholars of 
Japan. His Alma Mater conferred on Mr. Brown the 
degree of Doctor of Divinity in 18^4. 

Mr. Brown was married Ma> 6, 1830, at East 
Charlemont, Massachusetts, to Eliza Ballard, sister 
of his classmate, James Ballard, daughter of Captain 
William and Elizabeth (Whiting) Ballard, and grand- 
daughter of Deacon Josiah Ballard, who was de- 
scended from "husbandman" William Ballard, who 
emigrated from London to New England in 1635. 
Eliza Ballard was a pupil of Mary Lyon in 1826-7, and 
for some time before her marriage had been a success- 
ful teacher. She was a talented and faithful helpmeet 
of her husband during all his missionary life in India 
and for nearly all the subsequent period in America. 
She died in Jersey City, New Jersey, May 14, 1871. 

Mr. Brown married, secondly, in Jersey City, July 
24, 1872, Mrs. Charlotte A. (Worth) Marlit. A son 
by this marriage, Nathan Worth Brown, M.D., is a 
medical missionary of the American Baptist Foreign 
Mission Society, located at Nanking, East China. 

Besides the letters published in the Baptist 
Missionary Magazine, and the editorials which ap- 
peared in the American Baptist, Dr. Brown's published 

[140] 



Biographical Sketches 

works were: "Translations of the New Testament in 
Assamese"; "Portions of the Old Testament in Assa- 
mese and Shan"; "Grammar of the Assamese Lan- 
guage"; "Catechism in the Assamese and Shan Lan- 
guages"; "Arithmetic in Burman and Assamese"; 
"Hymns in Burman, Assamese and English"; "Com- 
parative Vocabulary of some fifty Indian languages 
and dialects"; "The Life and Gospel of Christ in As- 
samese"; "Pilgrim's Progress," unfinished, completed 
by a native translator; The Orunodoi, an illustrated 
Assamese monthly magazine, from 1846 to 1854; and 
several works in the Saxonized orthography, the prin- 
cipal of which is "The History of Magnus Maharba 
and the Black Dragon." After going to Japan, he 
also brought out in Japanese a "Scripture Manual"; 
"Mark's Gospel"; the "Account of the Creation," with 
a few Psalms, and the Epistle of James; the whole 
New Testament; "Rules for Transliteration and 
Transference of Hebrew Names"; also an edition of 
the New Testament in Kana, and a Scholars' edition 
(mixed Kana and Chinese). He also translated into 
the Japanese some portions of the Old Testament and 
many hymns, adding a number of his own composition. 
A memorial volume, compiled largely from letters 
of Dr. Brown, entitled "The Whole World Kin," was 
published in 1890. 



CLASS OF 1828 
Harvey Rexford Hitchcock, the oldest son of 
eleven children of David and Sarah (Swan) Hitch- 
cock, and grandson of David and Lydia (Parmlee) 
Hitchcock, was born in Great Barrington, Massachu- 
setts, March 13, 1800. The father was a shoemaker, 
having learned the trade from the grandfather, and 
settled at West Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Along 

[141] 



Williams College and Missions 

with his knowledge of his trade there was combined 
some literary ability, for he was the author of several 
books. He said of himself that he was "poor and la- 
borious but enjoying peace and contentment." The 
family is descended from Matthias Hitchcock, who 
came from London to Boston on the bark Susan and 
Ellen in the spring of 1635. He was one of the five 
purchasers and original residents of "South End Neck," 
now East Haven, Connecticut. 

Harvey Rexf ord Hitchcock united with the Congre- 
gational church in Great Barrington, January 5, 1817. 
He entered college as a Junior in 1826, becoming a 
member of the class which sent forth five missionaries, 
the other four being Henry Richard Hoisington, Sam- 
uel Hutchings, David Belden Lyman, and David 
White. His college years fell under the presidency 
of Dr. Griffin and at a time when Mark and Albert 
Hopkins were tutors. The strong religious influence 
exerted by these men will help account for the number 
of missionaries produced by the college in this period. 
In college Mr. Hitchcock was a member of the Mills 
Theological Society and of the Philotechnian Society, 
of which he was for a time a vice-president. At the 
Commencement, September 3, 1828, he took part in a 
Conference with a classmate, Warren Nichols, on the 
subject: "Grandeur as exhibited at the beginning and 
the end of time." 

After graduation from college Mr. Hitchcock stud- 
ied theology at Auburn Seminary, where he was grad- 
uated in 1831. He sailed as a missionary of the Amer- 
ican Board November 26 of the same year, for the 
Sandwich Islands, being a member of the fourth rein- 
forcement, arriving at Honolulu May 17, 1832. He 
commenced his labors in July of this year, on Molokai, 
where he labored with untiring fidelity and remarkable 
success for twenty-three years. 

, [142] , , 



Biographical Sketches 

This island is described as being from forty to fifty- 
miles long, from east to west, and about seven miles 
wide, from north to south. It is a little less than an 
entire mountain, rising on the north almost perpendic- 
ularly to a height of 5000 or 6000 feet. Between the 
base of the mountain on the south side and the ocean is 
a narrow plain from 100 to 300 yards wide. The most 
of the population resided on this plain. There was but 
little timber on the island, and that was on the summit 
of the mountain. The soil of the valleys and ravines 
was rich and productive of a great variety of fruits and 
vegetables. The climate at Kaluaaha, the station oc- 
cupied by Mr. Hitchcock, was cooler than at most of 
the stations, the heat of the sun being mitigated by the 
trade winds. At the time of occupying the station in 
1832, the people were poor and wretched, being subject 
to the oppressive exactions of the chiefs. Rev. Lowell 
Smith (Williams 1829), a college mate of Mr. Hitch- 
cock, had begun work at this station, in 1832, and a 
year later gave this description of the people: "Liv- 
ing under a system so oppressive as this, it is not sur- 
prising that the mass of them are heathen still in all 
but the name. And such in fact they are, heathen in 
knowledge, heathen in feeling, and, in all but the wor- 
ship of idols, heathen in practice. You would ask for 
no other confirmation of the truth of this remark than 
a sight of the manner in which they live. Their houses, 
many of them, are no more than five or six feet long by 
four wide and five feet from the ridge-pole to the 
ground; and these are not unfrequently the habitation 
of two, three, and sometimes more individuals of both 
sexes. And when the houses are more spacious, as 
most of them are, the state of things is no less distress- 
ing. But one apartment, no floor, no window, no 
chimney, except the humble door at which you enter. 
In this one apartment you may usually see, at one and 

[MS] 



Williams College and Missions 

the same time, men with no clothing but the wretched 
malo, which covers less of the surface of their bodies 
than the shoes on a man's feet; women perfectly naked 
above the loins; children in many instances with no 
clothing at all; cats, dogs, swine, fowls, and goats, and 
in addition to all these, lice and fleas without number. 
We are tortured by the strict community which exists 
among the above-mentioned animals, and which seems 
to reduce them all to nearly the same level." 

Such was the condition of the people to whose ele- 
vation Mr. Hitchcock devoted his life. His success 
was marked from the beginning, and, with only an oc- 
casional discouragement, was continuous. The sec- 
ond year after beginning his work he wrote of the 
establishment of three day schools, one with seventy 
members, two Sabbath-schools with an average attend- 
ance of over 100, of the house of God filled on the Sab- 
bath, of interesting religious meetings, of the observ- 
ance of the monthly concert of prayer, and of contri- 
butions made for benevolent purposes. Two or three 
years later a new meeting-house was erected, and the 
number of scholars in day schools increased to 1140. 
At the same time special religious interest was mani- 
fest in schools and congregations with frequent admis- 
sions to the church. He superintended three out-sta- 
tions, one of them at Kolaupapa, which was the center 
of a population of about 1000 souls. From a letter 
dated January, 1840, we get a glimpse of his weekly 
routine of duties. "If I am favored with my present 
health,' ' he writes, "I hope to continue without inter- 
ruption my present system of labors; that is, to hold a 
Bible class Sabbath morning of twenty-five girls, preach 
at ten o'clock, have an adult Sabbath-school at noon, 
and preach again at four. My week-day labors are as 
follows, — a Bible class daily with the above-mentioned 
company of females, who are committing Matthew to 

[ 144 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

memory at the rate of six verses a day. I spend some 
time with them in teaching singing. On Tuesday and 
Thursday mornings I preach at sunrise, and preach 
regularly on Wednesday afternoon. Saturday evening 
I have a lecture for the church. Once in two weeks on 
Friday I address the men's benevolent society, or cat- 
echise them on the New Testament; and on Tuesday 
have a Bible class of adults. We are now going 
through the book of Daniel. I make it a point, as far 
as possible, to visit some parts of the parish daily, and 
hold direct religious conversation with the people. In 
these visits I am happy to say that I am received with 
respect, and listened to by the people. . . . My miscel- 
laneous labors consist in conversing with those who re- 
sort to my study for the purpose, and giving out medi- 
cine for the sick. I am trying also to crowd in a weekly 
lecture on the most important points in theology, 
designed for several of the most pious and intelligent 
members of our church, in order to enable them to be- 
come more efficient helpers in the great work." 

In 1842, in the time of a revival, having only his wife 
and one lady teacher as helpers, he calls for additional 
missionaries, enumerating as the varied labors that 
pressed upon him, the care of the church of 400 mem- 
bers, the instruction of 500 to 600 professed converts, 
preaching three times on the Sabbath, — twice at the sta- 
tion and once at an out-post, — instructing an adult 
Sabbath-school of several hundred, superintending the 
native assistants, superintending the children's schools 
of the island, containing more than 1000 scholars; 
teaching the teachers and furnishing them with books, 
stated preaching on Wednesday, attention to medical 
calls. Along with this list of labors performed he gave 
a list of things that ought to be done but were neglected 
through want of help. In 1843 began a revival when 
the number of inquirers was more than 700. Besides 

[Ul] 



Williams College and Missions 

other seasons of lesser religious interest there began in 
1848 a revival which continued into the following year, 
when at one time 200 stood propounded for Christian 
fellowship. This growth called for new churches and 
additional buildings for schools. But along with this 
evangelistic and educational work, Mr. Hitchcock 
taught the people the duties of systematic benevolence. 
When the poverty of the people and the difficulty of 
securing money are considered, the contributions made 
by the natives for home and foreign work were gener- 
ous in the extreme. In speaking of the erection of a 
new church and of the contributions for this object, 
amounting to between $200 and $300, besides stone and 
lime and timber, Mr. Hitchcock writes: "Much of the 
money has been obtained by transporting fire-wood 
across the channel to Lahaina, — twenty miles distant, — 
in canoes. They carry seven sticks to a load, on an 
average, and sell them for eight cents a stick. The 
women also have worked hard and cheerfully in making 
mats." Mr. Hitchcock explains that by making mats, 
they never earn more than six or eight cents a week. 
In giving some account of progress in the year 1851, he 
states that in the first three months of that year the 
people had contributed more than $300 besides subscrib- 
ing $1800 for repairing a church. In the same year 
he wrote that within three miles of his station, in either 
direction, no less than seven houses of worship had been 
built by members of the church and that they were then 
building the eighth. Besides the remarkable develop- 
ment of the church in the island, schools flourished and 
agriculture made "unexampled progress." 

His arduous labors told upon his health. He had 
seen a people raised from the condition of heathenism 
to a position of self-support in religious matters and 
practising many of the arts of civilized life. He had 
richly earned a period of rest. In 1853 he visited this 

[ 14 6] 



Biographical Sketches 

country for the benefit of his health, but without suc- 
cess. On November 28, 1854, he with his wife and two 
sons embarked for the Islands, where they arrived 
March 31 of the following year. He died at his home 
in Kaluaaha, August 29, 1855, aged 55. 

Mr. Alexander, who attended the funeral and 
wrote an obituary notice of him for the Friend, thus 
spoke of him: "He died rejoicing in the hopes of the 
gospel. His dominant passion had always been to 
preach, and his great desire to live longer seemed to be 
simply that he might preach more." 

He married August 26, 1831, Miss Rebecca How- 
ard of Auburn, New York. She survived her husband 
many years, dying at Hilo, May 10, 1890. Besides a 
daughter, Sarah D., who died in infancy, their children 
were three sons: David H. Hitchcock, a lawyer in 
Hilo; H. R. Hitchcock, principal of the first high 
school or seminary carried on by missionaries for the 
benefit of natives; and Edward G. Hitchcock, a sugar 
planter. 

Henry Richard Hoisington was born in Ver- 
gennes, Vermont, August 23, 1801, being the son of 
Job and Sarah (Knapp) Hoisington, and grandson of 
James Hoisington. The family is of English descent, 
John Hoisington, one of the ancestors, having come to 
this country from England. This John (the name be- 
ing originally Horsington) served in King Philip's 
War in 1675. Job Hoisington, the father of the sub- 
ject of our sketch, was a minute-man of the War of 
1812, and was killed by a tomahawk in defending Buf- 
falo Post against the English and Indians. Other 
ancestors were engaged in the Colonial wars. Job 
Hoisington was, by trade, a builder and cabinet maker. 
His marked characteristics were energy, uprightness, 
and patriotism. 

[ 147 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

Henry Richard Hoisington learned the printer's 
trade when about fourteen years of age, and pursued it 
for a time in Utica and New York. He prepared for 
college in Eloomfield Academy, New Jersey, under the 
tuition of Dr. Armstrong, and entered Williams in 
1824. His college course thus fell entirely within the 
presidency of Dr. Griffin. This circumstance may in 
part account for the enthusiasm for missions which ap- 
parently prevailed at that time. At any rate five mem- 
bers of the class of 1828 entered the service of the 
American Board. In college Hoisington was a mem- 
ber of the Mills Theological Society and of the Philo- 
technian Society, of which he was one of the presidents 
and for a time secretary. He was a successful student 
and was graduated with Phi Beta Kappa rank. He was 
assigned the Greek Oration at Commencement, the 
subject of his address being, "The Golden Fleece." 
He studied theology at the Auburn Seminary, from 
which he was graduated in 1831. In August of the 
same year he was ordained pastor of the Presbyterian 
Church in Aurora, New York, where he remained two 
years. In 1833, he received an appointment as a mis- 
sionary of the American Board, and sailed from Bos- 
ton for Ceylon, in company with his classmate, Sam- 
uel Hutchings, and some others, in July, arriving at 
Jaffna in October. He was at first stationed at Man- 
epay, where he not only had charge of a little church, 
but superintended seventeen schools which were con- 
nected with the mission and numbered 700 pupils. 
When it was deemed important to establish a mission 
in the Madura District, the population of which was 
then 1,300,000, while the Tamil people of the continent 
numbered 6,000,000 or 8,000,000, Mr. Hoisington was 
one of the missionaries selected to establish the mission. 
The Missionary Herald for 1835 contains an interest- 
ing description of Madura, written by Mr. Hoisington, 

[148] 



Biographical Sketches 

who calls it a "city of temples, the largest of which has 
a wall half a mile in circumference, containing as many 
as 10,000 stone pillars, on which are carved curiously 
wrought images of every description." Mr. Hoising- 
ton showed the importance of this city as a missionary 
station, and gave many reasons for greatly extending 
the mission in that district. At the close of 1835, Dr. 
Poor resigned his position as principal of the Batti- 
cotta Seminary that he might labor for a time in this 
new mission on the continent. It was at this time that 
Mr. Hoisington took the superintendence of the Sem- 
inary, in connection with which his remaining years 
of missionary service were to be rendered. Of 
Mr. Hoisington's appointment to the position 
Dr. Anderson says: "His scholarly attainments 
and habits, while he gave great prominence to Biblical 
instruction, did much to develop the desire for scientific 
knowledge." 

Of the Batticotta Seminary, of which Jaffna Col- 
lege is the legitimate successor, Mr. Hoisington was 
principal some thirteen years. Though he was feeble 
in health, he accomplished a great work for the sem- 
inary, in which he took a deep interest. On account of 
ill health he visited the United States in 1842, return- 
ing to Jaffna the following year. He was finally 
compelled, by reason of continued ill health, to leave his 
mission work and return home in 1849. With health 
partially restored, he continued as agent of the Board 
two years, during which time he visited and did efficient 
work among the churches of southern New England. 
From November, 1853, to March, 1857, he was acting 
pastor of the Congregational Church in Williamstown, 
Massachusetts. During this time he occasionally lec- 
tured to the students of the college on Hinduism and 
gave some private lessons in Tamil. It is to be pre- 
sumed that his services in the church and college had 

[149] 



Williams College and Missions 

not a little to do with creating a zeal for missions, for, 
from the classes which had the opportunity of hearing 
him preach or lecture, twelve members gave themselves 
to missionary work. In April, 1857, he was in- 
stalled pastor of the church in Centrebrook, Connecti- 
cut, where he died suddenly, May 16, 1858, at the age 
of 57. 

Mr. Hoisington was endowed by nature with an 
acute and vigorous mind. His work as instructor of 
Tamil youth at Batticotta Seminary led him to study 
deeply the science, metaphysics, and theology of the 
Hindus, and it was said of him that in the department 
of higher Tamil literature, he had perhaps no superior 
in Southern India. 

Mr. Hoisington was married on September 21, 
1831, at Chester, Massachusetts, to Nancy, daughter of 
Crispus and Betsey (Wright) Lyman, granddaughter 
of Stephen Lyman, and a descendant of Bichard Ly- 
man, who came from Essex County, England, to 
Northampton, Massachusetts. She survived her hus- 
band many years, dying in Cleveland, Ohio, March 29, 
1878, at the age of 74. 

Of six children born to them, only one is now living, 
Rev. Henry Bichard Hoisington, who was graduated 
from Williams in 1857, and is now a retired Presbyte- 
rian minister, residing in Moores, Pennsylvania. 

Besides numerous letters written from the mission 
field and published in the Missionary Herald, Mr. Hois- 
ington published the "Oriental Astronomer," various 
articles in the Bibliotheca Sacra, and "Exposition of 
Hindu Astrology," published by the Ceylon Mission 
in the Christian Almanac. He also wrote for the Amer- 
ican Oriental Society a Syllabus of a Tamil translation 
of an old Sanskrit work which treats of deity, soul, and 
matter ; also an English translation of the same treatise, 
with an introduction and notes. His Alma Mater con- 

[150] 



Biographical Sketches 

ferred on him the honorary degree of Master of Arts in 
1843. 

Samuel Hutchings was born in New York City 
September 15, 1806. He was the son of Samuel and 
Lois (Whitehead) Hutchings. Samuel Hutchings, 
Sr., was among those taken by the British during the 
Revolutionary War, and was confined in the Middle 
Dutch Church, on Nassau Street, New York, which 
was then used as a prison. He was a merchant, and 
during the pastorate of Rev. Dr. Cox was an elder in 
the Spring Street Presbyterian Church of New York 
City. The son was reared in a home of comfort and 
amid excellent religious influences, and early gave him- 
self to the ministry. He fitted for college at the acad- 
emy in Bloomfleld, New Jersey, and entered college in 
1824. Among his college mates were Nathan Brown, 
Simeon Howard Calhoun, Samuel Irenaeus Prime, 
and David Newton Sheldon. Pour of his classmates 
became missionaries in foreign fields. He was a mem- 
ber of the Philologian Society and of the Mills Theo- 
logical Society. He was a successful student, and was 
one of the speakers at Commencement, the subject of 
his oration being "Errors of Genius." After gradu- 
ation he studied theology in Princeton Seminary, com- 
pleting the course in 1831. 

He was ordained by the Presbytery of Cleveland, 
Ohio, November 8, of the same year, and became the 
stated supply of the First Presbyterian Church of that 
city, 1831-32. He then became stated supply of the 
Congregational Church in Medfield, Massachusetts, 
1832-3. In 1833 he sailed under appointment of the 
American Board as a missionary to Ceylon, India, 
where he spent ten years of faithful service. 

In his journal of date July 12, 1834, Mr. Hutchings 
gives some account of his surroundings at Varany: "We 

[151] 



Williams College and Missions 

took our departure from Oodooville, where we spent 
eight months of peculiar interest and great enjoyment, 
and arrived here on the eighth instant. We are living 
in a bungalow which, as to neatness and comfort, is just 
about on a par with a newly built barn at home. It 
is covered with leaves deeply plaited together, instead 
of boards. The dimensions are fifty-six feet by thirty- 
three. One end is reserved for meetings on the Sab- 
bath, the remainder divided into two rooms, besides a 
bathing and store-room. The church ground is nearly 
covered with thorns and bushes, but we hope soon to 
have it ail cleared away. This is the more necessary as 
many snakes, scorpions, tarantulas, etc., hide among 
them. We have killed in two days two snakes whose 
bite is death — cobra capella, or hooded snake, also a 
scorpion with two of its young, whose poison is very 
painful. These cobra capellas are usually from three 
to five feet long, and the larger ones three and three and 
a half inches thick." A more pleasing passage in the 
journal of the same year is the following: "We have 
now in Varany four schools, in which are nearly 150 
pupils, most of them boys. We shall gradually obtain 
girls. We have had applications for the establishment 
of more schools, but our means will not allow us to have 
more this year." The journal of a year subsequent 
tells of the meeting at Oodooville of 150 school-masters 
and of the 6000 children of the district who were being 
educated under them in the knowledge of the true 
God. 

The beginning of the year 1842 finds Mr. Hutch- 
ings at Royapoorum, a northern suburb of Madras, he 
having removed there from the Ceylon Mission for two 
years, to assist in the preparation and publication of a 
Tamil and English Dictionary, which had been begun 
by Mr. Knight of the Church Missionary Society. Mr. 
Hutchings also took charge of the station at Royapoo- 

[152] 



Biographical Sketches 

rum, where, a little while before, a church edifice had 
been erected. 

Mr. Hutchings had the distinction of having intro- 
duced into India Dr. Lowell Mason's method of teach- 
ing singing. Being himself a singer and a personal 
friend of Dr. Mason, Mr. and Mrs. Hutchings had, by- 
invitation, visited Dr. and Mrs. Mason in Boston be- 
fore sailing, in order that Dr. Mason's method might 
be learned for the purpose of teaching it to the boys of 
Batticotta Seminary. 

Near the end of the year 1843 ill health compelled 
Mr. Hutchings to relinquish the work to which he had 
devoted his life and in which he had been so successful, 
and to return to this country. After a period of rest 
and recuperation he became pastor of the Congrega- 
tional Church in South Brookfleld, Massachusetts, 
1847-51. 

He was principal of a private school for young 
ladies in New Haven, Connecticut, 1851-6, and of a 
similar school in Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, 1856-7. 
He was stated supply for the Wickliffe Presbyterian 
Church at Newark, New Jersey, 1857-63, where he 
also taught two years. He subsequently became the 
stated supply of the Presbyterian Church at Salem, 
Pennsylvania, 1869-70. After another period of 
teaching he removed, in 1873, to Orange, New Jersey, 
and devoted himself to literary work. He died in 
Orange of pneumonia and heart failure, September 1, 
1895, 89 years of age. He was the last survivor of a 
family of fourteen children. The funeral services were 
held at the family residence in Orange, the six oldest 
grandsons acting as bearers. The place of burial is 
Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Newark. 

Mr. Hutchings married at New Haven, Connecti- 
cut, September 18, 1831, Elizabeth Coit Lathrop, 
daughter of Charles and Joanna (Leffingwell) La- 

[153] 



Williams College and Missions 

throp, and granddaughter of Colonel Christopher and 
Elizabeth (Coit) Leffingwell and of Azariah and Abi- 
gail (Huntington) Lathrop, and a descendant of Rev. 
John Lothroppe, who came from Lowthorpe, England, 
to America in 1634. Mrs. Hutchings was also de- 
scended, on her mother's side, from Elder Brewster of 
the Mayflower. Her father, Charles Lathrop, grad- 
uated from Yale in 1788, and spent his life in Norwich, 
Connecticut, in the practice of the law. He married a 
sister of William Leffingwell, of Norwich, who was 
graduated at Yale in 1786. Mrs. Hutchings had four 
sisters, all of whom married ministers, and all but one 
missionaries, one of the sisters being the first Mrs. 
Miron Winslow. 

Of ten children born to Mr. and Mrs. Hutchings, 
five are living: — Mrs. Theodore H. Smith, Orange, 
New Jersey; Mrs. Frederic A. R. Baldwin, Allentown, 
Pennsylvania; Elizabeth Nichols Hutchings and Cor- 
nelia Vermilye Hutchings, Orange, New Jersey; 
George Long Hutchings, East Orange, New Jersey. 
Mrs. Hutchings died at Orange, September 1, 1895. 

While in India Mr. Hutchings was, for a time, sec- 
retary of the Jaffna Bible Society and secretary of the 
Revision Committee. In collaboration with others he 
revised the Tamil Bible, and near the close of his term 
of service in India, he was engaged in the compilation of 
a Tamil and English Dictionary. After his return to 
this country, he published in 1874 "The Mode of Bap- 
tism." He was one of the principal contributors to 
the American edition of "Chambers' Encyclopaedia," 
over one thousand articles in this work being from his 
pen. He also prepared most of the biographical 
sketches for the "Encyclopaedia of Missions." He was 
a contributor also to the Bibliotheca Sacra, Christian 
Intelligencer, and Presbyterian Journal, besides other 
religious and secular periodicals. 

[154] 



Biographical Sketches 

Mr. Hutchings received from his Alma Mater the 
honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1888. 

David Belden Lyman, the oldest of ten children of 
David and Rhoda Phelps (Belden) Lyman, was born 
in Hartford, Connecticut, July 28, 1803. He was the 
grandson of David Lyman, who married Mary Brown, 
a relative of the martyr, Captain John Brown. This 
grandfather, known as General David, served some 
time in the army of the Revolution, and then was hon- 
orably discharged to run a grist-mill in New Hartford, 
for the supply of the Revolutionary troops. The great- 
grandfather of David Belden, also named David, mar- 
ried Mary Guitteau, who was of Huguenot descent, 
being the daughter of Francis Guitteau, a distinguished 
physician of Woodbury, Connecticut, who was ban- 
ished from France during the persecution of the Hu- 
guenots in connection with St. Bartholomew's Day. 

The Lyman family traces its descent from Richard 
Lyman, who was the ancestor of all the Lymans of 
English stock in America, and who was born in High 
Ongar, Essex County, England, and married Sarah, 
daughter of Roger Osborne, of Halstead, in Kent. He 
embarked with his family from the port of Bristol for 
New England, and became one of the first settlers of 
Hartford, Connecticut. He died in August, 1640. 

The father of David Belden Lyman was a farmer, 
and, through his ancestry from England and the Hu- 
guenots of France, he was a Puritan of double quality. 
The name of Lyman is one of distinction in the civil 
and religious annals of this country. In this branch of 
the family were many who enjoyed the advantages of 
higher education. Rev. Orange Lyman, an uncle of 
the subject of this sketch, was graduated at Williams 
in 1809, and was for one year a tutor in his Alma Mater. 
He married a sister of a college mate, Chester Dewey 

[155] 



Williams College and Missions 

(Williams 1806), who afterwards became a professor 
in his Alma Mater. Two other uncles, Elijah and 
Norman Lyman, were eminent physicians in Connecti- 
cut. Two cousins, Rev. John Burnett Lyman and Rev. 
Judson Guitteau Lyman, were graduated here in 1825 
and 1847, respectively. 

David Belden Lyman was converted in childhood 
and united with the church at the age of eighteen. He 
prepared for college at the Lenox Academy and entered 
Williams in 1824. One of the more distinguished 
members of the class of 1828 was Dr. Alonzo Clark. 
This class had five members who became missionaries 
in foreign fields, the four besides Mr. Lyman being 
Harvey Rexford Hitchcock, Henry Richard Hoising- 
ton, Samuel Hutchings, and David White, who, how- 
ever, was not graduated at Williams. The large 
number of missionaries from the class of 1828 may be 
accounted for in part by the earnest preaching of Presi- 
dent Griffin, who had been inaugurated in 1821, and in 
part by the revival of religion that occurred in the col- 
lege in 1824 and 1825. 

Lyman's college life was marked by good scholar- 
ship and earnest religious character. He was a mem- 
ber of the Philologian Society, and of the Mills Theo- 
logical Society. He was one of the speakers at 
Commencement, his appointment being an Oration, 
and his subject, "Effects of the Roman Conquest 
upon Britain." 

His theological studies were pursued at Andover 
Seminary, where he was graduated in 1831. On Oc- 
tober 12 of the same year he was ordained as a mission- 
ary of the American Board at Hanover, New Hamp- 
shire, with Rev. Asher Wright, for a long time mis- 
sionary among the North American Indians. President 
Lord of Dartmouth College preached the sermon on 
the occasion. On the 26th of November, he sailed from 

[156] 



Biographical Sketches 

New Bedford, Massachusetts, with the fourth mission- 
ary company for the Sandwich Islands, reaching Hon- 
olulu May 17, 1832, after a passage of 172 days. He 
was stationed at Hilo on Hawaii, where he remained 
during his whole missionary life, without once return- 
ing to his native land. After four years of evangelis- 
tic work as associate pastor with Mr. Green, he opened 
the Hilo Boarding School for Boys in 1836, and con- 
tinued at the head of it until 1873, when he retired be- 
cause of advanced age. The school was designed to 
train teachers for the common schools. The pupils 
were required to do a certain amount of manual labor 
each day. The institution had a charter, the mission- 
aries of the Islands being the trustees. The school 
trained nearly 1000 choice Hawaiian youth, many of 
whom are to-day pastors of the native churches, teach- 
ers of the native schools, lawyers, planters, men of af- 
fairs, and missionaries in other islands. Upon the minds 
and hearts of all of these Mr. Lyman left the impress 
of his own high character. The value of the services 
which he thus rendered for Hawaii cannot be easily 
appreciated. In addition to teaching, he also often 
preached. 

He was of gentle spirit, and humble in his estimate 
of himself. In his life work he accomplished much 
more than many others who seem to do far more. It 
was characteristic of his modesty that he said to one 
who was to speak at his funeral: "Say nothing in my 
praise, say what you can to make men better. " The 
following extract is from the obituary notice given in 
the Missionary Herald: 

"Quietly and unostentatiously he did his work, not 
anxious for the applause of man, but ready to devote 
all his powers to the service of his Master. In his old 
age he was greatly honored by all who knew him. He 
kept himself fresh by work and study, and when up- 

[157] _ 



Williams College and Missions 

ward of seventy-five years of age he was accustomed to 
read his Hebrew Bible, both for profit and enjoyment. 
It was fitting that at his funeral in the native church at 
Hilo, where Titus Coan had so long preached, there 
should be a great assembly of Hawaiians, and that both 
the natives and foreigners should unite in affectionate 
remembrance of him whom they loved to call 'Father 
Lyman.' " 

He died at Hilo, October 4, 1884. Of the eighty- 
one years of his earthly life, fifty-two were spent on 
missionary ground. 

He married, November 2, 1831, Sarah, daughter of 
Deacon Salmon and Mary (Moore) Joiner of Royal- 
ton, Vermont. She died at Hilo, December 7, 1885, 
— "A mother in Israel." 

The following is a brief record of four of the seven 
children born to them. Henry Munson Lyman was 
born on the Island of Hawaii, November 26, 1835, and 
after graduating at Williams in 1858, with Phi Beta 
Kappa rank, studied medicine at Harvard and New 
York and was appointed assistant surgeon in the army. 
He subsequently removed to Chicago, and from 1870 
during his active life held a place on the faculty of 
Rush Medical College. He was the author of several 
books on Anaesthetics and Insomnia, and was often con- 
sulted by other physicians as a recognized authority. 
He attained high rank as a practitioner, was an eminent 
teacher and a scholar of broad culture. He died in 
Evanston, Illinois, November 21, 1904. Frederick 
Schwartz Lyman was born at Hilo, in 1837, and mar- 
ried Isabella, daughter of Levi Chamberlain, one of the 
earliest missionaries to the Sandwich Islands, and was 
in 1870 Circuit Judge of Hawaii, residing on his plan- 
tation in Kau, Hawaii. David Brainerd Lyman was 
born at Hilo in 1840, came to the United States, June, 
1860, was graduated from Yale in 1864, and from 

[158] 



Biographical Sketches 

Harvard Law School in 1866, and became a distin- 
guished lawyer in Chicago, Illinois, where he died, 
April 8, 1914. Rufus Anderson Lyman, another son, 
was the Lieutenant-Governor of the Island of Hawaii 
in 1870. 

David White, son of Enoch and Sarah (Lankton) 
White, and grandson of Ebenezer White, was born in 
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, March 23, 1807. In Smith's 
"History of Pittsfield," there are references both to the 
father and grandfather of Mr. White. In speaking of 
the erection of one of the edifices of the First Congre- 
gational Church of Pittsfield, Mr. Smith says: "The 
cornerstone of the church was laid on the 28th of May, 
1852, by Rev. Dr. Todd, who made an appropriate ad- 
dress. There were other ceremonies, such as are usual 
on similar occasions, but perhaps the most interesting 
feature of the day was the presence, seated on the plat- 
form, of respected and venerable citizens who had wor- 
shipped in the first humble sanctuary of the parish, and 
had also aided, sixty-one years before the present cere- 
monies, in raising the frame of the second meeting- 
house. They were Butler Goodrich, John Dickinson, 
Oren Goodrich, Elijah Robbins, and Enoch White." 

The following passage refers to his grandfather: 
"The first mill-dam in Pittsfield — built by Deacon Cro- 
foot some few rods south of the Elm Street bridge — 
passed, in 1778, into the hands of Ebenezer White, un- 
der a lease of nine hundred and ninety-nine years from 
the town. It remained in the hands of Mr. White, and, 
after his death, of his son, Enoch, until 1832; Mr. 
Enoch White continuing and improving the saw and 
grist-mill on the east end of the dam, and the successors 
of Jacob Ensign maintaining the fulling-mill on west 
end; Jonathan Allen, 2d, being the last. Simeon 
Brown also built a bark-mill, for the supply of the tan- 

[159] 



Williams College and Missions 

nery, just below the dam, and obtaining its power from 
it." Another statement of this history is that Ebenezer 
White lived on the road to Dalton, East Street. 

David White entered college from Pittsfield in 
1824, but for some reason remained here only one year, 
going to Union College, where he was graduated. At 
Williams he was a member of the Philologian Society, 
with Phi Beta Kappa rank. After graduation he 
taught for a time, and then entered Princeton Theo- 
logical Seminary in 1832, graduating in 1835. He 
was ordained as an evangelist at Pittsfield by the 
Berkshire Congregational Association on October 9, 
1836, and on the 31st of the same month, accom- 
panied by his wife and Mr. Benjamin Van Rens- 
selaer James, he embarked at Baltimore, bound for 
Cape Palmas, Western Africa, where he was to be as- 
sociated with Mr. Wilson at that station. The party 
arrived at Cape Palmas in good health on December 25, 
just two years after the arrival of Mr. Wilson. Mr. 
White wrote: "We were cordially welcomed by Mr. 
Wilson and wife, and were most happy in finding them 
enjoying excellent health, and prosecuting their labors 
with the prospect of great success. Everything in con- 
nection with the mission, so far as we can judge, en- 
courages us to believe that much good has been effected 
by the mission among this people. Everything around 
us makes us more and more satisfied with the field of 
labor which we have chosen. While much remains to 
be done before this can become a virtuous and intelli- 
gent people, every effort to render them such is crowned 
with apparent success. Our hearts are drawn out to 
them, and it will be our pleasure to devote ourselves to 
their good. 

"Yesterday (27th) the king and nine of his head- 
men called to welcome us to their country. They ex- 
pressed much pleasure at seeing us, and a willingness 

[160] 



Biographical Sketches 

to facilitate our operations. They are beginning to see 
the importance of schools for their children; and 
urgent requests are almost daily made for schools to 
be opened in the adjoining towns." 

But these pleasant anticipations were doomed to an 
early and most sad disappointment. In less than one 
month after writing the lines just quoted, on January 
23, Mr. White died of fever, and Mrs. White died of 
the same disease on January 28. But even in this short 
period of service, both Mr. and Mrs. White had been 
able to do work that won the affection of the natives. 
The very Sabbath before his death Mr. White had 
preached to the people through an interpreter, and had 
made a deep impression by the great emphasis with 
which he had told them that it might be the last time 
that they should hear his voice. A letter from Mr. 
Wilson, published in the Missionary Herald for 1837, 
gives a full account of the sickness* and death of Mr. 
and Mrs. White. The following is an extract from 
Mr. Wilson's letter: "Every interview he had with 
this people made them feel he was their friend, and that 
he had come to Africa for their good. He and I vis- 
ited all the native settlements between this place and 
King Baphro's town, at the mouth of the Cavalry River, 
the week after his arrival. This visit enlisted his feel- 
ings very deeply in the salvation of this people, and he 
frequently said, 'How interesting — how interesting a 
field is this! Oh! that my brethren in America could 
only see what I see!' Many times he was affected to 
tears, as he turned his eyes upon the lively groups of 
boys and girls who surrounded us in every village 
through which we passed. 

"Nor were the feelings of his dear wife less engaged. 
Her only desire to live, as she frequently said, was to 
do good to this people. ,, 

On October 12, 1836, Mr. White married Helen 

[161] 



Williams College and Missions 

Marcia Wells of Newburgh, New York, who was born 
in Cambridge, Washington County, New York, No- 
vember 24, 1813. 

CLASS OF 1829 

Simeon Howard Calhoun, the sixth of nine chil- 
dren of Andrew and Martha (Chamberlin) Calhoun, 
was born in Boston, August 15, 1804. Andrew Cal- 
houn was a merchant, and he and his wife were among 
the original members of Park Street Church. Young 
Calhoun, from the age of six till ten, enjoyed the pas- 
toral instruction of Rev. Dr. Griffin, who subsequently 
became president of Williams College. Dr. Griffin's 
ministry made a lasting impression upon the youth. In 
December, 1814, the family removed to Rindge, New 
Hampshire, where they came under the pastoral care 
of Rev. Dr. Seth Payson. In 1821, the family removed 
to Canajoharie, New York, where the father had pur- 
chased a farm. Here the son fitted for college, devot- 
ing some of his time, also, to farming and teaching. In 
his twenty- third year he entered the Junior class at 
Williams, where his maturity and superior talents en- 
abled him to attain a high rank as a scholar and gave 
him a large influence among the students. Among his 
classmates were Samuel Irenaeus Prime, and Lowell 
Smith, who became a missionary in the Hawaiian Is- 
lands. Mr. Calhoun was a member of the Philoteeh- 
nian Society, of which he was for a time president. He 
was graduated with Phi Beta Kappa rank, and was one 
of the speakers at Commencement, the subject of his 
oration being, "Clinton and Canning." Owing to the 
death of George Ashley Williams, to whom the honor 
had been assigned, Mr. Calhoun was appointed to de- 
liver also the Salutatory Oration in Latin. While he 
was a superior scholar, he was not religious, — while in 
college he was a sceptic and an opposer of religion. 

[162] 








'»*' - 




^L ... 


*"wHI 


j&m II HJ» £UHft 



Biographical Sketches 

After graduation, he taught three years in the High 
School at Springfield, Massachusetts, at the same time 
entering his name as a student of law in the office of his 
brother, the Hon. William B. Calhoun. In 1831 ? the 
death of his mother, who had devoted him to the life of 
a missionary, brought vividly to his mind her prayers 
and lessons, and led to his conversion. In 1833, he ac- 
cepted a tutorship in Williams College, which he held 
for nearly three years. His zeal and activity now in 
inculcating religious truth among the students were 
more than commensurate with the indifference he had 
shown to religion in his student days. Rarely, prob- 
ably, in the history of the college has there been a 
stronger religious influence exerted than at this period, 
when Dr. Griffin was president, Mark and Albert Hop- 
kins were professors, and Simeon H. Calhoun was tu- 
tor. From the classes of 1834-46, thirty-five per cent 
of the students entered the ministry, and of this number 
nearly thirty became missionaries, either in the foreign 
or home field. Of this number was David Tappan 
Stoddard, the missionary to Persia, who was for some 
time a student at Williams. In the life of Stoddard it 
is stated that his influence was decidedly in favor of or- 
der and good morals, and that "this was owing in no 
small degree to the excellent influence of Mr. Simeon 
H. Calhoun, who was then tutor in college." Young 
Stoddard writes of him: "Our tutor has already be- 
come very dear to me, and seems almost a second father. 
Indeed, he is so considered by all the students, who go 
to him for advice and direction as to one in whom they 
place implicit confidence. By his unwearied exertions 
he has rendered himself so necessary to the college that 
it would seem that the college could not well exist 
without him." 

Mr. Calhoun did not study at a theological semi- 
nary, but while a tutor in college he devoted consider- 

[163] 



Williams College and Missions 

able time to the study of theology, receiving more or less 
of direction and assistance from President Griffin and 
Professor Mark Hopkins. He was licensed to preach 
by the Berkshire Association in June, 1836, and in Oc- 
tober following, at Springfield, was ordained as an 
evangelist. He had previously received an invitation 
from the American Bible Society to act as their agent 
in the Levant. He had been for some time greatly in- 
terested in the Greek people, and on the 4th of July, 
1829, he had delivered before the faculty and stu- 
dents in the chapel an oration on the subject: — "The in- 
timate connection between Liberty and Knowledge," 
the peroration of which was inspired by the thought of 
Greek independence. Gladly accepting the appoint- 
ment of the Bible Society, on the 17th of November, 
1836, he left the United States for the Levant, and 
reached Smyrna January 1, 1837. He labored suc- 
cessfully in this position for seven years, during 
which time he made occasional trips from Smyrna 
as a center, to Constantinople, Greece, Egypt, 
and Syria. A single extract from his journal, of 
date February 7, 1839, will give an idea of the ex- 
tent and importance of his work. "During the year 
1838," he writes, "more than 20,000 New Testaments 
and portions of the Old were circulated in the kingdom 
of Greece. This is a greater number than has been dis- 
tributed in any previous year. Between 10,000 and 
11,000 were distributed at the expense of the American 
Bible Society, the rest at the expense of the British and 
Foreign Bible Society." 

In 1843 he received an appointment of the Ameri- 
can Board as a missionary, and in July, 1844, he joined 
the Syrian Mission, and was put in charge of the sem- 
inary at Abeih, on Mount Lebanon, — a seminary for 
training young men to be teachers and preachers. To 
this work he devoted his entire life. The peculiar sim- 

[ 164] 



Biographical Sketches 

plicity and ardor of his piety, for which he was noted 
when he was tutor at his Alma Mater, especially qual- 
ified him for his great work as an instructor of native 
preachers in Syria. 

Of his work and surroundings, his classmate, Dr. 
Prime, who visited him in his mountain home in 1854, 
wrote: "It was a very lowly cot in which he received 
me, his classmate and college friend. In the midst of 
forty Arab boys, he was at work with the zeal and zest 
that would have inspired him in the highest pulpit in our 
land. He was happy there. We wandered over the 
hills together, and journeyed to Tyre and Sidon, and 
Nazareth and the ancient Shechem and Jacob's well ; on 
the plains of Sharon he related the story of his conver- 
sion, and of his new life in God. He had studied the 
Bible till its words were so familiar that any text in its 
history, prophecy, gospel or song, was localized without 
reference. Its spirit was so mixed with his that all his 
words were grace. He breathed as if heaven were his 
present home. Cheerful and free from cant or affecta- 
tion; enjoying as in college "a good thing" when it was 
said; abounding in reminiscence and anecdote and en- 
tertaining in his conversation always, he lived above the 
world while he was in it, and, like Enoch, walked with 
God." 

The Missionary Herald for December, 1868, con- 
tains an article on "Lebanon and the Abeih Seminary," 
prepared by Messrs. Calhoun and H. H. Jessup, which 
contains the following description of the scenery and 
inhabitants: "The view from the roof of the seminary 
is extensive and beautiful. We have a semi-circle 
of sea (the Mediterranean), to the west and north; 
and behind us, the lower ridges of Lebanon, intersected 
by well-cultivated valleys. A walk of fifteen or 
twenty minutes takes us to the height above the vil- 
lage, from which we have a magnificent prospect of the 

[165] 



Williams College and Missions 

higher ranges and peaks of the goodly mountain. To 
the south and southwest, the vision stretches away into 
the territory of the old tribes of JSTaphtali and Asher, 
and reaches Tyre and Sidon and Sarepta, on the coast. 
We have often seen the mountains on the island of 
Cyprus, more than one hundred miles distant. 

" 'The Lebanon/ as it is usually called, is a range of 
mountains stretching on towards the north from the 
borders of Galilee, seventy-five or eighty miles. It is 
eminently a 'goodly mountain.' The number of in- 
habitants is about 300,000, more than half of whom are 
of the Papal Church. The Druzes number about 55,- 
000; the remainder are adherents of the Greek Church 
and Mohammedans, of both the Turkish and Persian 
sects. The universal language is Arabic." 

Dr. Calhoun was eminent both as a teacher and 
preacher. He trained most of the teachers and preach- 
ers who are now employed in the Syrian mission of the 
Presbyterian Board, besides several who are engaged 
by other societies in Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. The 
success of his seminary at Abeih had no little influence 
in leading to the founding of other institutions, — like 
Robert College and the girls' school at Beirut. He 
was also pastor of the church on Mount Lebanon. Be- 
ing well versed in the Arabic and Turkish languages, 
he rendered important services in translation, and as- 
sisted Dr. Goodell in his first translation of the Bible 
into Turkish. His influence was not confined to the 
people of the Orient. He visited the United States in 
1847, returning to Syria in 1849, and again for a short 
time in 1866, and finally in 1875. In all of these visits 
he sowed the seed of goodly influence in American 
churches, especially in the Congregational and Presby- 
terian bodies, under the Foreign Board of both of 
which he had served as a missionary. Especially re- 
markable and impressive were the addresses he made at 

[166] 



Biographical Sketches 

the missionary prayer meeting and praise meeting at 
the Commencement of Williams College in 1876, and 
at the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church 
the same year. His speech on both these occasions was 
not only eloquent, but glowed with a kind of inspira- 
tion, while his venerable appearance and tremulous 
voice were a prophecy of the end which was near. 
During this year he often spoke of his desire to return 
to Lebanon as his home, and to spend his days there, but 
his health failed rapidly and he died at Buffalo, New 
York, December 14, 1876. 

Dr. Calhoun was gifted by nature with superior in- 
tellectual powers, and had he continued in the profes- 
sion which he first chose, he might have won high dis- 
tinction at the bar and as a statesman. The family to 
which he belonged was a remarkable one. All of the 
several sons became men of influence, and some attained 
to high positions in the councils of the nation. In view 
of his finished life, no one would presume to say that 
in choosing to be a missionary in Syria, Simeon Cal- 
houn did not choose wisely. Along with intellectual 
qualities of a high order, from his parents, in whom were 
united the Scotch and the Protestant-Irish elements, 
he had inherited great strength of character. While 
he was far-sighted and sagacious in comprehending the 
character of those about him, simplicity and timidity 
were marked traits in his character. It was through 
dread of display that he declined to receive honorary de- 
grees from colleges. It is not strange that his influence 
in Syria was great among all classes. English and 
German residents, as well as American missionaries, 
revered him and often resorted to him for counsel. 
Natives who were not of his faith, and of whatever re- 
ligion, placed implicit trust in him. A striking instance 
of this was shown at the time of the Druze massacre, 
when both Maronites and Druzes deposited with him 

[167] 



Williams College and Missions 

their treasures, while they fled to places of safety. The 
ardent piety which he manifested during the years of 
his tutorship at Williams never grew faint, and till the 
day of his death he was an earnest student of the Word 
of God from the time that, in answer to the prayers of 
a godly mother, he had been constrained to search the 
Scriptures for the revealed way of life. Hence it was 
that at the seminary at Abeih the Bible was the chief 
text-book, and the Old and New Testaments were stud- 
ied thoroughly, through the entire four years' course. 
Of a commanding figure and with a strikingly noble 
face, he always impressed one with the magnetism of his 
presence. Hence it was, perhaps, that in the days of 
his venerable dignity and power, Dr. William Adams 
was accustomed to call him "The Cedar of Lebanon." 

His Alma Mater conferred on him the honorary de- 
gree of Doctor of Divinity in 1864. 

Dr. Calhoun was married September 19, 1848, to 
Miss Emily Pitkin Raynolds, daughter of George and 
Mary (Cook) Raynolds, a sister of Rev. George Cook 
Raynolds, M.D., LL.D. (Williams 1861), missionary 
in Van, Eastern Turkey. She was also a relative of Rev. 
Richard Salter Storrs, D.D. (Williams 1807), of 
Braintree, Massachusetts, and, at the time of her mar- 
riage, had been seven years a resident of his family. She 
belonged to a missionary family. Of the descendants of 
her grandfather, Samuel Raynolds, ten have already 
engaged in missionary work, one of them being Mrs. 
William G. Schauffler, who was a mother of mission- 
aries. At the time of the death of Dr. Calhoun there 
were living five children: — four daughters and a son. 
The oldest daughter, Emily Raynolds Calhoun, mar- 
ried Dr. Galen Bancroft Danforth, and was connected 
with the Syrian Mission till the time of her death in 
1881. Another daughter, Susan Howard Calhoun, 
married Rev. Charles Newton Ransom, and is now 

[168] 



Biographical Sketches 

connected with the Zulu Mission. The son, Rev. 
Charles William Calhoun, M.D. (Williams 1873), was 
connected with the Syrian Mission till the time of his 
death in 1883. After the death of her husband, Mrs. 
Calhoun returned to Syria, and for several years la- 
bored there among the women. In 1885 she returned 
to America, and afterwards accompanied her daughter, 
Mrs. Ransom, to the Zulu Mission, Natal, South 
Africa, where for several years she labored to lead 
souls to Christ, and where she died November 4, 1908, 
aged 84 years. "This estimable lady," writes Dr. 
H. H. Jessup, "was the worthy companion of so 
noble, godly, and conservative a man, and made his 
home in Abeih a fountain of blessed influence for thirty 
years." 

Besides assisting Dr. Gooddell in his translation of 
the Bible into Turkish, Dr. Calhoun prepared and 
published text-books in philosophy, astronomy, and 
theology. 

Charles Robinson was born in Lenox, Massachu- 
setts, December 29, 1801. He made a public profes- 
sion of religion in his fourteenth year, and on December 
3, 1815, united with the Congregational Church in 
Lenox. Soon after this his thoughts were turned to- 
wards the gospel ministry, but so many obstacles 
seemed to stand in the way that he said little about the 
desire of his heart. When an agent of the American 
Education Society offered him assistance, he looked up- 
on it as an act of Providence in his behalf. 

He fitted for college at Lenox Academy, and en- 
tered the Freshman class at Williams in 1825. Among 
his classmates were Simeon Howard Calhoun, Samuel 
Irenaeus Prime, and Lowell Smith. He was a mem- 
ber of the Philologian and Mills Theological Societies. 
At graduation he had for a Commencement perform- 

[169] 



Williams College and Missions 

ance a conference with Lowell Smith on "The Past 
and Future Triumph of Truth." 

In the fall of 1829 he entered Auburn Theological 
Seminary, from which he was graduated in 1832. 
During the progress of his education he had often con- 
sidered the subject of the conversion of the heathen in 
relation to his personal duty, and near the end of his 
course in the seminary, he decided to offer himself to 
the American Board should there be a call for more 
laborers. He sometimes said to his intimate friends: 
"I am willing to go and labor among the heathen, al- 
though I know there are many others better qualified; 
but if the best men will not go, then those who are will- 
ing ought to go." In the summer of 1832 he was ac- 
cepted by the Prudential Committee of the American 
Board, and was appointed, together with Mr. Stephen 
Johnson, a fellow student, to the Siam Mission. He was 
ordained at Lenox, January 16, 1833. On June 10, 
of the same year, he and wife, together with Messrs. 
Johnson, Munson, and Lyman and their wives, 
embarked from Boston and reached Bangkok July 25, 
1834. 

Like all other pioneers in the missionary work, Mr. 
Robinson met with many obstacles and discourage- 
ments, owing largely to the jealousy of the Govern- 
ment in respect to foreigners. Coming to understand 
the difficulty of giving correct impressions as to the re- 
ligious interest or the moral character of the heathen, 
he refrained from writing much concerning the state of 
things in Siam. In one of his earlier letters from the 
mission field, he writes with interest about the Siamese 
language, and subsequent letters and his journal clearly 
show he was meeting with large success, while he wrote, 
though guardedly, of the extent and promise of his field, 
of religious meetings and spiritual blessings, of the en- 
largement of the church and improvement of the 

. [170] , 



Biographical Sketches 

schools. In connection with his work as preacher and 
teacher, he accomplished much in the way of translat- 
ing into the Siamese language portions of the Old and 
New Testaments. 

His health began to be impaired in the spring of 
1842. He, however, labored on till November, 1845, 
when he left Siam, hoping to return in a few months; 
but after a trial of six months he was told that the only 
hope for his recovery would be found in a speedy return 
to a cool climate. He left Saint Helena, February 
23, 1847, for New Bedford, in very feeble health, still 
hoping to see his native land once more. He continued 
to fail, however, till the morning of March 3, when he 
passed away, at the early age of 46. The body was 
buried at sea. 

On April 1, 1833, he married at Riga, Monroe 
County, New York, Miss Maria Church. She, with 
one daughter and three sons, survived him. She re- 
turned to the United States April 16, 1847, and died 
at Brooklyn, New York, January 9, 1886. 

An obituary notice of her husband was prepared by 
Mrs. Robinson, and published in the Missionary Her- 
aid for July, 1847. The following extract is from that 
notice: "If the religious character of Mr. Robinson 
had one trait more prominent than another, it was that 
confidence which may be said to have had its foundation 
in the truth: 'He that spared not his own son, but de- 
livered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also 
freely give us all things?' This was a subject on 
which he delighted to dwell, and on which he loved to 
preach. Another feature of his Christian character 
may be found in that expression addressed by Paul 
to the Corinthians, 'And that he died for all, that 
they which live, should not henceforth live unto them- 
selves, but unto him which died for them and rose 
again.' " 

[171] 



Williams College and Missions 

Lowell Smith, oldest child of Deacon Moses and 
Lucretia (Brown) Smith, and grandson of Peletiah 
and Rhoda Smith, was born in Heath, Massachusetts, 
November 27, 1802. He was a lineal descendant of 
Lieutenant Samuel Smith of Hadley, Massachusetts, 
who was one of the very prominent men of his time and 
place. It is related that in a revival with which the 
church and town were blessed in 1822, Lowell Smith 
and his parents were among the converts. The son 
united with the church in Heath on December 8, of the 
same year. The father was a farmer and blacksmith 
by occupation. In later years, the son, in giving an ac- 
count of his early religious experience, wrote : "For a 
year or two my convictions were very strong that it was 
my duty to forsake the farm and shop and prepare my- 
self to preach the gospel to the destitute." In accord- 
ance with these convictions he pursued a course of 
preparatory study and entered Williams as a Freshman 
in 1825. Two of his classmates were Simeon Howard 
Calhoun and Samuel Irenaeus Prime. He was a mem- 
ber of the Philologian Society and of the Mills Theo- 
logical Society. At the Commencement, September 2, 
1829, he took part in a Conference with a classmate, 
Charles Robinson, on the subject, — "The Past and 
Future Triumph of Truth." After graduation he 
studied theology at Auburn Seminary, where he grad- 
uated in 1832. He was ordained by the Frank- 
lin Association, at Heath, September 26, of the same 
year. As a young man he had heard of the reception 
of the gospel by the natives of Hawaii, and he now re- 
solved to offer himself as a missionary to the heathen. 
He went out under the auspices of the American 
Board with the fifth reinforcement to the Sandwich Is- 
lands Mission, sailing with his wife from New London, 
Connecticut, November 23, 1832, and arriving at Hon- 
olulu May 1, of the following year. With them also 

[172] 



Biographical Sketches 

sailed Benjamin W. Parker, missionary, and wife, and 
Lemuel Fuller, printer. For some time they lived in 
a grass hut, without door, window, or floor. They were 
at first located at Molokai, w T here they were associated 
with a college mate, Rev. H. R. Hitchcock (Williams 
1828), but on account of Mrs. Smith's health, they re- 
moved to Ewa, on Oahu. In the short time of five 
months he mastered the language so as to use it in 
preaching and teaching. In 1836 he removed to Hon- 
olulu, and the following year established the Second 
Church, of which he remained the untiring and faithful 
pastor for more than thirty years. Soon after the 
establishment of this church, there followed a great 
revival, and in June, 1838, he received into church mem- 
bership, at one communion, 433. During his pastor- 
ate nearly 2000 members were brought in from the 
world and nearly 1000 admitted from other churches. 
In an interesting letter, dated at Honolulu, November 
8, 1843, addressed to the Society of Inquiry, Williams 
College, and now preserved in the College Library, Mr. 
Smith writes: "This mission has been in operation 
twenty-three years, and in the meantime 30,000 of the 
people have been baptized into the name of the sacred 
Trinity, and admitted to the fellowship of the Chris- 
tian church. More than 5000 were received to church 
fellowship during the year 1842. After deducting the 
thousands who have died and others who have been re- 
moved by church discipline, the whole number of church 
members now in regular standing is about 24,000." 

His labors were abundant, not only as a preacher 
and pastor, but also in the field of education. He 
trained many of the natives to be preachers, teachers, 
and missionaries. He retired from the pastorate in 
1869, but still labored, in various ways, for the welfare 
of the Hawaiians till the end. He died May 8, 1891. 

The funeral services were held in the Kaumakapali 

[173] 



Williams College and Missions 

church, and were attended by throngs of people, to- 
gether with members of the diplomatic corps, and 
representatives of the queen and Government. The 
following extract is from an article published in the 
Friend by one of his colleagues, Rev. S. E. Bishop: 
"If we were to specify that trait of Father Smith 
which impressed us most, it would be his pure, simple, 
single-heartedness. He did not seem to reason much 
about benevolence or 'altruism.' He simply went 
straight forward doing all the good in sight. With 
him the way to do a thing was to do it, not to stop and 
ponder much about it. He seemed to think little about 
his own salvation, but to toil much to save other people. 
He was full of prayer, leaning wholly upon God. His 
family often heard his low tones in the night talking 
with his God and supplicating mercies for many people. 
His life was a blessed and holy life, and his departure a 
blessed and sacred ushering into the rapture of God's 
presence. How many thousands of chosen Hawaiians 
have welcomed him there, whom he taught and led in 
the way to heaven!" 

Mr. and Mrs. Smith visited their native country in 
1865-6. 

He received the honorary degree of Doctor of 
Divinity from his Alma Mater in 1864. 

He was married October 2, 1832, to Miss Abba 
Willis Tenney, daughter of Gideon Tenney, of Bran- 
don, Vermont. She died at Honolulu January 31, 
1885. There were born of this marriage seven chil- 
dren. 

The following extract concerning the life and char- 
acter of Mrs. Smith is from the Missionary Herald for 
1885: "She is spoken of as possessed of a lovely 
Christian character, fulfilling her responsibilities as 
wife, mother, missionary, and teacher with great fidelity 
and grace. . . . For fifty-two years Mrs. Smith 

, . [174] 



Biographical Sketches 

labored in various ways for the good of the Hawaiian 
race, always aiding her husband in his efforts, and part 
of the time teaching, for which work she was eminently 
qualified. For many years she had been President of 
the Hawaiian Woman's Board, into which organiza- 
tion she carried all her faith and zeal.' , 



CLASS OF 1830 

Jesse Lockwood was born at North Salem, New 
York, November 11, 1802. He was induced to com- 
mence study with reference to being a Christian minis- 
ter when, as he expressed it, "he saw the whiteness of 
the field and the great want of laborers. " He pre- 
pared for college at Clinton Academy, East Hampton, 
Long Island, and entered Williams as a Sophomore in 
1827. In October, 1825, two years before entering col- 
lege, he united with the Presbyterian Church of Lam- 
ington, New Jersey. In college he joined the Mills 
Theological Society, and also the Philotechnian Society, 
of which he was for a time president. At Commence- 
ment he appeared in a Conference with two of his class- 
mates, Jared Reid Avery and Nathan Strong Hunt, 
the subject being "Oppressions of Modern Greeks, of 
our Indians, and of the Children of Africa.' ' 

After graduation he studied theology, spending two 
years at the seminary in Princeton, and one year in 
New Haven. In April, 1833, he was licensed to 
preach by the First Presbytery of Long Island, the 
session being held at Sag Harbor, and on the 18th of 
the following September, at the close of his theological 
studies, he was ordained at the same place, and by the 
same Presbytery, as a missionary to the Indians. 

On October 18, 1833, he, with his wife, left New 
York on his journey to the Western Cherokee coun- 
try, arriving at D wight January 25, 1834. The field 

[ 175 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

to which Mr. Lockwood went was that of the Arkansas 
Cherokees, lying west of the Arkansas Territory and 
north of the Arkansas River. The population of the 
tribe at that time was 5000. The mission there had 
been commenced in 1817. Mr. Lockw^ood entered at 
once on his missionary labors, being stationed at 
Dwight. He prosecuted his labors with great dili- 
gence, but after a service of five months he died of fever 
at Dwight, July 11, 1834, in the 32d year of his 
age. An obituary notice of Mr. Lockwood, pre- 
pared by his colleague, Rev. Cephas Washburn, 
appeared in the Missionary Herald for 1834. The fol- 
lowing extract is from that article: "Mr. Lockwood 
was an excellent young man. He had won the confi- 
dence and love of all the family and of all the Chero- 
kees who had become acquainted with him. We cher- 
ished the fond expectation that he would live to be- 
come extensively useful among this people. The prov- 
idence which has so quickly removed him is dark and 
mysterious. We know it is right, and we would bow 
with submission to the divine will. Yet we can but 
feel that we and the Cherokees have sustained a heavy 
loss. For him we cannot mourn. Divine grace had 
made him, in an eminent measure, meet to be partaker 
of the inheritance of the saints in light. I think I never 
saw so lovely an exhibition of the mind that was in 
Christ Jesus, as was given by that dear brother. His 
attainments in piety were very far above the ordinary 
standard, even of ministerial or missionary piety. Of 
him it might truly be said that prayer was his vital 
breath. His was a most lovely example of meekness, 
humility, benevolence, and conscientiousness." 

Mr. Lockwood was married on September 22, 
1833, at Gloucester, Massachusetts, to Miss Cassandra 
Sawyer, daughter of Rev. Moses Sawyer, formerly of 
Henniker, Xew Hampshire. She studied at Ipswich 



Biographical Sketches 

Female Seminary under Miss Grant and Miss Lyon. 
After the death of her husband she returned to 
Gloucester. 

Dayid Newton Sheldon, son of David and Eliza- 
beth (Hall) Sheldon, and grandson of Phineas and 
Ruth (Harmon Smith) Sheldon, and Luke and Eliza- 
beth (Cooley) Hall, was born in Suffield, Connecticut, 
June 26, 1807. The first immigrant ancestor in Amer- 
ica was Isaac Sheldon, who was born about 1629, prob- 
ably near London, England, and who probably came 
as a boy with his father to Dorchester, Massachusetts. 
He was recorded in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1652, and 
in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1654. Isaac Shel- 
don was the great-great-grandfather of the subject of 
this sketch. The great-grandfather removed to Suf- 
field, Connecticut, in 1723, where many of his descend- 
ants lived after him. A noteworthy fact about the an- 
cestry is the longevity of many members of the family. 
Both the parents of David Newton Sheldon lived to be 
over ninety years of age. His grandfather Sheldon 
lived to be ninety, and the grandfather Hall to be 
eighty-two. The father of Mr. Sheldon was a farmer. 

The son fitted for college at Westfield, Massachu- 
setts, and entered Williams as a Sophomore in 1827. 
Among his college mates were Alonzo Clark, Simeon 
Howard Calhoun, Samuel Irenaeus Prime, and Wil- 
liam Rankin, who for many years had the distinction of 
being the oldest living graduate of the college. In col- 
lege Mr. Sheldon was a member of the Philologian 
Society and was one of the presidents of the Society. 
He excelled in scholarship and graduated as Valedicto- 
rian of the class. The subject of his oration at Com- 
mencement was "Importance of uniting Active with 
Contemplative Habits." Three years later he delivered 
the Master's Oration. He was a tutor in the college 

[177] 



Williams College and Missions 

1831-32. He then studied theology at the Newton 
Theological Seminary, from which he was graduated 
in 1835. The same year he was ordained as a Baptist 
minister. On October 25 of that year, he and his wife 
sailed from New York to go as missionaries to France. 
They landed at Havre November 21, and reached Paris 
November 25. 

It is probable that while a member of the seminary 
he came under influences which led him to undertake 
this mission. In 1832, at the meeting of the General 
Convention of the Baptist denomination a resolution 
was adopted instructing the Board of Managers to in- 
quire into the expediency of establishing a mission in 
France. After suitable inquiries, the Board decided to 
send an agent to France to inquire into the conditions 
of the churches there and the opportunities for mission- 
ary work. Rev. Ira Chase, D.D., a professor in the 
seminary at Newton, was appointed for this purpose 
and sailed for Havre in October, 1832. In the report 
he made on his return to the United States he recom- 
mended the establishment of a permanent mission in the 
country. The Board adopted this recommendation and 
sent Mr. Isaac Willmarth, then a member of the semi- 
nary at Newton, to commence the mission at Paris. 
He reached the French capital in June, 1834. The in- 
structions given him made it one of the principal ob- 
jects of the mission to train young men for the gospel 
ministry. A church of ten members was organized in 
July, 1835, and in November of that year Mr. Sheldon 
and Rev. Erastus Willard arrived in Paris and joined 
the mission. They spent the winter at the capital learn- 
ing the French language and assisting Mr. Willmarth 
in preaching in English, distributing tracts and reli- 
gious books, and writing for the press. In the spring of 
the following year Messrs. Willmarth and Willard re- 
moved to Douai, for the purpose of establishing near 

[178] 



Biographical Sketches 

there a mission school, in which to train candidates for 
the ministry. The place selected was Nomain, a village 
about twelve miles from Douai. Although the school 
was commenced, the original plan was not carried out. 
Missionary operations, however, were carried on in the 
north of France from various points where there al- 
ready existed Protestant churches. In the meantime 
Mr. Sheldon was occupied with mission work in Paris, 
occasionally making visits to the provinces of the 
North. As the chapel which had at first been used 
was inconveniently situated, the public services of the 
mission were held at Mr. Sheldon's own house, or occa- 
sionally at the houses of the church members. Pro- 
fessor Gamwell in his "History of American Baptist 
Missions" states that "the principal labors of Mr. Shel- 
don at Paris were of a retired and private character, 
and were devoted to the dissemination of the gospel by 
other agencies than that of preaching." In September, 
1837, Mr. Willmarth returned to the United States on 
account of feeble health and left many additional cares 
with Mr. Willard, his assistant at Douai, who, besides 
the instruction of the pupils in theology, had to visit 
and superintend many missionary stations. As he was 
compelled thus to withdraw more and more from the 
work of training candidates for the ministry, which was 
one of the chief objects of the mission, it was deemed 
best that Mr. Sheldon should leave his station at Paris 
and go to the aid of Mr. Willard at Douai. Though 
the prospects of the mission at the capital were at that 
time very inviting and hopeful, Mr. Sheldon removed 
to Douai in April, 1839, where he assumed charge of 
the theological pupils and conducted service every Sab- 
bath in the English chapel. Mr. Sheldon, however, 
deciding about this time to enter upon other spheres of 
usefulness at home, returned to the United States, land- 
ing in New York on November 17, 1839. From New 

[179] 



Williams College and Missions 

York he went with his family to Halifax, Nova Scotia, 
arriving there May 16 of the following year. Here he 
was pastor of a Baptist church till November 5, 1841, 
when he went to Waterville, Maine, where he was pas- 
tor of the Baptist church for one year. He then became 
President of Waterville College, which position he held 
for ten years, 1843-53. During this period, he was also 
Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy, and 
from 1853 to 1889 was a member of the Board of Trus- 
tees. In 1853 he removed with his family to Bath, 
Maine, where he was pastor of the Baptist Church 
about three years, after which he became pastor of 
the Unitarian Church in the same town. In 1862 he 
returned to Waterville and became pastor of the Unita- 
rian Church there, which position he held till 1878. He 
continued to reside in Waterville till his death, October 
4, 1889. Dr. Sheldon was spoken of as "an able 
preacher, a profound scholar, and possessed of a sin- 
gular grace of mind and character." 

He was married October 15, 1835, in Chelsea, 
Massachusetts, to Rachel Hobart Ripley, daughter of 
John and Jane (Molineux) Ripley, and granddaugh- 
ter of Nehemiah and Lydia (Hobart) Ripley, and de- 
scendant from William Ripley, who came, probably, 
from Hingham, Norfolk, England, on the Diligent, 
and settled in Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1638. John 
Ripley was born in Hingham, and from there removed 
to Boston, where Mrs. Sheldon was born December 3, 
1809. Her father's mother was descended from Rev. 
Peter Hobart, son of Edmund Hobart, who was born 
in England and came to Charlestown, Massachusetts, 
in 1633, later establishing himself in Hingham. On her 
mother's side Mrs. Sheldon was of French extraction, 
and possibly descended from a Huguenot family. She 
died in Lynn, Massachusetts, August 6, 1896. Of nine 
children born of this marriage, a son and two daughters 

[180] 



Biographical Sketches 

born in France died in Waterville, and a daughter born 
in Halifax died in London, England. Four sons are 
living : Henry Newton, who was graduated at Harvard 
in 1863, and received from his Alma Mater the degree 
of LL. D. in 1908, Justice of the Supreme Court of 
Massachusetts, and resident in Boston; Orlando Wil- 
bur, Biddeford, Maine; Chauncey Cooley, who was 
graduated from Harvard as Bachelor of Arts, in 1870, 
and from the Medical School as M. D. in 1873, resident 
in Lynn, Massachusetts; Edward Stevens (Harvard 
1872), Professor of Romance Philology in Harvard 
University. 

Mr. Sheldon received the honorary degree of Doc- 
tor of Divinity from Brown University in 1847, was a 
member of the Maine Historical Society and, for a 
time, was trustee of the Newton Theological Institute. 

Besides occasional sermons and articles in the Chris- 
tian Review, he published a volume of discourses, "Sin 
and Redemption" (New York, 1856). 



CLASS OF 1831 

Nathan Benjamin, son of Nathan and Ruth 
(Seymour) Benjamin, was born in Catskill, New York, 
December 14, 1811. The father served with distinction 
in the War of the Revolution. When the son was only 
two years old the father died, and the mother, with her 
seven children, removed to Williamstown, Massachu- 
setts, which now became the home of the family. The 
immigrant ancestor of the family was John Benjamin, 
who came from Wales in 1632, and helped found the 
present city of Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

The son was for a short time at Bennington Acad- 
emy, Vermont, but was prepared for college chiefly 
under the tuition of Ebenezer Kellogg (Yale 1810), 
who held the professorship of Ancient Languages in 

[181] 



Williams College and Missions 

Williams College from 1815 to 1844. He entered col- 
lege in 1827, when he was but little over sixteen years of 
age. He was not then a professor of religion and had 
entered upon the college course not from his own pur- 
pose, but in obedience to the earnest wishes of his 
mother. He became hopefully pious in his Senior year 
during a revival of religion which extended through 
the college and town. He was a member of the 
Mills Theological Society and of the Philotechnian So- 
ciety, of which he was at different times president, vice- 
president and secretary. He took good rank as a 
scholar and was one of the speakers at Commencement, 
September 7, 1831, the subject of his oration being 
"Mahomet." After graduation he entered at once upon 
the study of theology, spending two years at Auburn 
Seminary, and one year at Andover. He subsequently, 
1834-36, attended medical lectures in New Haven, 
Connecticut, and in New York. He had decided to 
become a foreign missionary while at Andover, and on 
graduation from the seminary in 1834 had received an 
appointment as a missionary from the American Board. 
On April 21, 1836, he was ordained as a missionary in 
Williamstown. He spent a part of this year in labor- 
ing as agent of the Board in the State of Vermont, and 
in July of the same year he embarked with his wife from 
Boston, for Smyrna and Greece. He spent a year and 
a half at Argos, and then removed to Athens, where he 
labored, with great fidelity, for six years, chiefly, but 
not exclusively, in connection with the press. During 
this period he conducted an interesting Bible class, 
which was attended by fifteen or twenty young Greeks, 
students in the University or Gymnasium of Athens. 
Two of these students were subsequently converted. 

In 1844 a change was decided upon in regard to 
the Greek Mission and Mr. Benjamin was transferred 
to the Armenian field, his station being at Trebizond. 

[182,] 



Biographical Sketches 

Arriving here in August of that year, he took up his 
new work with cheerfulness, although the change in- 
volved the giving up of many plans, the sundering of 
many ties, and the acquisition of a new and difficult lan- 
guage. He was not destined, however, to remain long 
at this post, for the health of Mrs. Benjamin failed, and 
by the advice of the brethren and of skilled physicians 
they returned to America. This was in 1845, and after 
only eight months' residence in Trebizond. 

Owing to the continued illness of Mrs. Benjamin 
he resigned his connection with the Board. He subse- 
quently received a call from the Congregational Church 
in North Stockbridge, Massachusetts, to become their 
pastor. He was seriously considering accepting this in- 
viting call when, with the improvement of his wife's 
health, came urgent letters from several missionary 
friends at Trebizond, Broosa, and Constantinople, 
strongly urging his return to Turkey. After consulta- 
tion with physicians, and with the unanimous wish of 
the Prudential Committee of the Board, he decided to 
return to mission work. He, accordingly, reembarked 
from Boston with his family October 21, 1846, and ar- 
rived in Smyrna December 7. Here his labors were to 
be chiefly in connection with the Armenian press, and 
this field at this time was fully ripe for labors in the 
matter of translating and printing. The success which 
subsequently attended the preaching of the Word in 
Armenia was due, in no small measure, to the services 
of Mr. Benjamin in sending the printed Word into so 
many homes. He understood the value of this instru- 
mentality, and so entered upon his work with the zeal 
and confidence of one who was doing just the work to 
which he was called in the providence of God. His mis- 
sionary experience of nine years was also of great serv- 
ice to him in enabling him to enter upon active labors 
almost as soon as he arrived in Smyrna. As already in- 

[183] 



Williams College and Missions 

timated, his labors were not confined to the department 
of printing. He was accustomed to make tours into the 
surrounding regions, and by his talks with individuals 
did much to impart a knowledge of the gospel. A letter 
published in the Missionary Herald for 1848 gives a 
full account of a tour made through Asia Minor, when 
he visited, among other places, Magnesia, Thyatira, 
Laodicea, and Ephesus. 

In the spring of 1852, it was decided to remove the 
printing operations from Smyrna to Constantinople. 
In accordance with this plan, Mr. Benjamin in Octo- 
ber of that year removed with his family to the Turkish 
capital. Here, although the labors connected with the 
printing became more onerous, he preached regularly in 
Greek to a small congregation in Pera, and took his 
turn in preaching to the English congregation. Be- 
sides these duties, he was treasurer of the mission, an 
office which laid upon him great responsibility and much 
extra labor. These various labors, to which were super- 
added a large amount of miscellaneous business con- 
nected with his location at Pera, naturally weighed 
heavily upon him and excited the painful anxieties of 
his friends. On January 12 he was attacked with what 
seemed to be a severe cold, but which soon developed 
into a serious illness. The best medical advice and the 
most assiduous nursing could not avail to avert the 
disease. He died of typhus fever January 27, 1855, at 
the age of 43. 

The whole native Protestant community mourned 
his loss, and a large number of foreign residents man- 
ifested their deepest sympathy. Although the day of 
the funeral was unusually inclement, the chapel was 
crowded at the services, which were partly in English 
and partly in Armenian. A large procession of Euro- 
peans and natives followed the body to the place of 
burial. The Protestant Armenian brethren insisted on 

[184] 



Biographical Sketches 

the privilege of carrying, with their own hands, the cof- 
fin to the grave, nearly a mile distant. At the grave, the 
chaplain of the English Embassy, by particular re- 
quest, read the funeral service of the Church of 
England. 

Probably the particular department of missionary 
work to which he was devoted did not have that fre- 
quent mention in the columns of the Missionary Herald 
which the labors of "preaching missionaries" received. 
But the importance of such work should not be under- 
valued, and Mr. Benjamin had the "testimony of a 
good conscience," and the full satisfaction of knowing 
that he was doing just what his Master would have him 
do. While the preacher in mission fields speaks to a 
congregation of 100 or 200, Mr. Benjamin spoke to 
tens of thousands, and his influence was as wide as the 
Armenian field and will go on for all time. 

Rev. Dr. Dwight, one of the associates of Mr. Ben- 
jamin, published in the Missionary Herald for 1855 a 
full account of his life and character. The following 
extract is from that paper: "Mr. Benjamin was pos- 
sessed of many peculiar qualifications for the mission- 
ary work. His mind was naturally clear and shrewd; 
and it had been successfully disciplined under the best 
advantages that America affords. To a thorough clas- 
sical training, he added an extensive knowledge of 
books, and to this a thorough knowledge of men. Few 
excelled him in sound judgment, and in enlarged and 
sober views. His opinions were formed carefully, and 
by his own independent investigation; and they were 
expressed modestly, though firmly, whenever they were 
found to differ from those of others. He had a large 
share of what is usually called common sense, with an 
order and system, and a practical talent, which fitted 
him eminently for the work to which he he was espe- 
cially called. Blessed with a remarkably uniform tem- 

[185] 



Williams College and Missions 

perament, he steadily pursued his object, performing 
faithfully the duties of each successive day without ex- 
citement, and without detraction. Patient, kind, and 
affectionate, he won the hearts of all, and repelled none. 
If he had a personal enemy, the writer is ignorant of it. 
In his manners he was eminently courteous, so that he 
had a good report 'of them that are without.' ' 

Mr. Benjamin was married April 25, 1836, to Miss 
Mary Gladding Wheeler, daughter of Samuel G. 
Wheeler, of New York City. She, with children, sur- 
vived her husband. She died of apoplexy, March 3, 
1871, at Medford, Massachusetts. Samuel Greene 
Wheeler Benjamin (Williams 1859), author and art- 
ist, the first United States Minister and Consul-Gen- 
eral to Persia, was a son. 

The following letter will be read with interest, dic- 
tated as it was by the venerable William Rankin, 
LL.D., who, at the time of writing, at the age of 101, 
was the only surviving classmate of Mr. Benjamin and 
the oldest living graduate of this college. 

Princeton, N. J., 
Dec. 16, 1911. 
Professor John H. Hewitt, 

Williamstown. 
Dear Professor Hewitt: — 

In reply to your letter of the 12th to my Father, 
he wishes me to write and say that after the graduation 
of his class he never saw Nathan Benjamin. He re- 
members him, however, as a student in college, a boy 
of a loving disposition, against whose character there 
was no word of reproach. His mother and sister lived 
in Williamstown, but Benjamin had a room, for a time 
at least, in West College. 

Three years after his graduation my Father re- 
turned to Williamstown and called at the Benjamin 

[186] 



Biographical Sketches 

home, but did not see him ; he was probably at that time 
in the Theological Seminary. During the Senior year 
in college there was a revival of religion and Benjamin 
became converted at that time. In an interview had 
with him at this time, — their only interview on the sub- 
ject of religion so far as recalled by Father, — my 
Father says he remembers well being impressed with 
the change in his views of life, expressed by Benjamin. 
He felt convinced that his attitude towards religious 
subjects was more outspoken and decided, and he was 
not surprised to hear after graduation that he was 
studying Theology and had decided to go as a foreign 
missionary — a decision due, he thinks, to this revival. 

Benjamin went to the East under the American 
Board and died, he believes, on the field. 

Hoping that this may in some measure meet your 
request, and with the regards of my Father and myself, 
I am 

Very truly yours, 

Walter M. Rankin. 



CLASS OF 1832 

John Dunbar, son of John and Sarah (Breaken- 
ridge) Dunbar, was born in Palmer, Massachusetts, 
March 7, 1804. The grandfather, John Dunbar, Sr., 
of Foxbury, Massachusetts, married Esther Boynton 
and removed with his family of seven children to 
Palmer, some time after 1780. The subject of 
this sketch, John Dunbar 3d, removed in early 
life with his father's family to Ware, Massachusetts. 
He entered college as a Freshman in 1828. He was 
a member of the Philologian and the Mills Theolog- 
ical Societies. He was a successful student, receiv- 
ing an appointment and being one of the speakers at 
Commencement, the subject of his oration being 

[187] 



Williams College and Missions 

"Habit of Philosophizing on Ordinary Events." 
After graduation he studied theology about a year and 
a half in Auburn Seminary. He was licensed and or- 
dained by the Cayuga Presbytery, at Ithaca, New 
York, May, 1833. In 1834 he was appointed by the 
Committee of the American Board to make an explor- 
ing tour among the Indian tribes near or beyond the 
Rocky Mountains. On the 5th of May, 1834, he with 
Rev. Samuel Parker (Williams 1806), and Mr. Sam- 
uel Allis, Jr., left Ithaca, New York, their instructions 
being to visit the Pawnees on the Platte River, and if 
they should find a favorable opening, to commence a 
mission there, in case it should be found impracticable 
to go so far as the Rocky Mountains. On reaching 
St. Louis, it was decided that Mr. Parker should re- 
turn and, if possible, obtain other associates; while 
Messrs. Dunbar and Allis proceeded up the Missouri 
River as far as Cantonment Leavenworth, about 350 
miles by land from St. Louis. Reaching this place in 
June, they remained till September, visiting the various 
tribes of Indians located thereabout, collecting informa- 
tion, and making preparations for their future labors. 
They were treated with much hospitality and kindness 
by the officers of the troops stationed there, and met 
with missionaries of the Baptist and Methodist denom- 
inations. In the following winter they went out with 
the Indians on their annual hunt. They found the 
Pawnees an interesting tribe, quite friendly to the 
whites, and in favor of schools. They found the tribe 
divided into four bands, — Pawnee Republicans, Paw- 
nee Peeks, Pawnee Loups, and Grand Pawnees, — 
amounting in all to 6244 souls. The language spoken 
by the four bands was essentially the same with slight 
differences in pronunciation. Mr. Dunbar reported 
that after about a year and a half he had so far acquired 
the language as to be able to impart instruction. A 

[188] 



Biographical Sketches 

journal kept by him, relating his experiences and 
containing much interesting information about the 
habits of the Indians, was published in the Missionary 
Herald for 1835. The following extract explaining 
the method of curing the buffalo meat is from that 
journal: "The buffalo are abundant on all sides of us, 
and we are making a large quantity of meat at this 
place. The men bring in more or less meat every day. 
When the meat is brought to the lodge, the women take 
their knives and cut it for drying, rolling it out in very 
thin large pieces. This being done, a sort of frame- 
work is set up within the lodge over the fire, on which 
they spread the meat to be dried. When it has dried 
some, but not so much as to become hard, it is taken 
down and pounded out flat. This operation is usually 
performed with their feet, but sometimes with a wooden 
pestle. It is repeated several times when the meat is 
drying, and is done that the meat may pack close when 
dried hard. When it has become thoroughly dry and 
fit for packing, it is taken down and folded in pieces 
two and a half feet long, and one and a half broad. 
These pieces are done up in balls, and inclosed in skin 
prepared for the purpose, and often fancifully painted. 
They sometimes hang up their meat on frames in the 
open air, but it does not dry fast at this season, and 
freezes at night, which injures it." 

In the autumn of 1836 Mr. Dunbar returned tem- 
porarily to New England, in accordance with the in- 
structions received from the Committee of the Board. 
He brought with him the manuscript for a small ele- 
mentary book which he had prepared in the Pawnee 
language, of which he had 500 copies printed. 

On January 12, 1837, he was married to Miss 
Esther Smith of Hadley, Massachusetts, sister of the 
wife of Rev. William Hervey (Williams 1824), of the 
Mahratta Mission; and with her he started from the 

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Williams College and Missions 

interior of the State of New York about the middle of 
February to return to the Pawnee country, arriving at 
Bellevue May 7. On account of the unsettled condi- 
tion of affairs among the Indians, they remained the 
most of the year after their arrival at the United States 
Agency at Bellevue. 

Besides establishing schools and giving religious in- 
struction, one object of the mission was to induce the 
Indians to lead a settled, agricultural life, that they 
might procure for themselves the means of comfortable 
assistance. For this purpose the United States Gov- 
ernment furnished them with oxen and sent among 
them a farmer and two teachers, and two blacksmiths. 
For a time, Mr. Dunbar had sole charge of all the af- 
fairs of the mission, besides various cares imposed on 
him by the agent, and in consequence had little time 
for giving religious instruction. When, subsequently, 
a prospect of successful labor was opening before him, 
the successive attacks of the Sioux upon the Pawnee 
village made it necessary for the missionaries to retire 
from the country and the mission was given up. 

Mr. Dunbar was subsequently settled in Oregon, 
Hart County, Missouri. He next removed to Kansas, 
where he preached and cultivated a farm. He died in 
1857, leaving a family of seven children. Mrs. Dun- 
bar had died in 1856. 



CLASS OF 1833 

William Tkacy, fourth son of David and Susan- 
nah (Capron) Tracy, and grandson of Deacon Andrew 
and Ruth (Smith) Tracy, was born in Norwich, Con- 
necticut, June 2, 1807. The grandmother, Ruth 
Smith, was a daughter of Captain Elijah Smith of 
Barnstable, Massachusetts. 

The family traces its descent from Lieutenant 

[190] 



Biographical Sketches 

Thomas Tracy, of Tewksbury, England, who landed 
in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1636, moved to Hart- 
ford, Connecticut, in 1637, thence to Saybrook in 1638, 
and in 1660 settled in Norwich. He was a direct 
descendant of the Saxon kings of England. The 
family is represented in English nobility by Baron 
Sudley, of Toddington. Lieutenant Thomas Tracy, 
the emigrant, is spoken of as evidently a man of talent 
and activity, skilful in the management of various kinds 
of business. In 1659, he was one of two witnesses to 
the deed transferring the Township of Norwich to its 
settlers, given by Uncas, Sachem of the Mohegans. He 
also represented the town of Norwich at twenty-seven 
sessions in the legislature. In August, 1673, he was 
Lieutenant of the "New London County Dragoons," 
enlisting to fight the Dutch and Indians. 

William Tracy at first learned the trade of a tin- 
smith, which trade he followed for three years in Phil- 
adelphia, before studying for the ministry. He joined 
the class of 1833 at Williams in his Sophomore year, 
but was not graduated, having left college for the pur- 
pose of teaching in Kentucky. He studied theology at 
Andover and Princeton Seminaries, graduating from 
the latter in 1836. He was ordained at Philadelphia, 
April 12, 1836. On the evening of November 20 of 
the same year, in the Bowdoin Street Church, Boston, 
he was one of the fourteen young recruits — seven mis- 
sionaries and their wives — who, about to sail to reen- 
force the new mission at Madura, received farewells 
from the Secretaries of the Board, and Dr. Nehemiah 
Adams, who spoke in behalf of the churches. Three 
days later, on November 23, they sailed from Boston, 
and reached Madura, after spending some months at 
Madras, October 9, 1837. In the following year Mr. 
Tracy was appointed to the new station of Tirumanga- 
lam, twelve miles southwest of Madura, and soon went 

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Williams College and Missions 

there to reside. The new station was an important one, 
not only being within easy reach of many villages and 
in a district which had over 100,000 inhabitants, but sit- 
uated on a thoroughfare for the multitudes on their way 
to and from the monthly feast which was celebrated a 
few miles away from Tirumangalam. The location 
thus made easy the distribution of the Scriptures and 
tracts among the people which was an important part 
of the labor of the missionary. Mr. Tracy also opened 
in the neighboring towns many schools, which served 
as preaching centers over a wide region. His fa- 
miliarity with the language enabled him to make good 
use of these opportunities and the experience gained 
in this kind of work was of great value to one who was 
to become the trainer of teachers and pastors. Mr. 
Tracy early interested himself in schools. The year 
after going to Tirumangalam he opened a boarding- 
school, which, in 1842, had grown into a seminary with 
thirty pupils. The ideal set for this institution is ex- 
pressed in his annual report made the same year: "It 
is evident to any one who has paid attention to the sub- 
ject that the immense population of this country can 
never be converted from idolatry and instructed in the 
worship of the only living and true God by the per- 
sonal labors of foreign missionaries. That must be done 
chiefly through the agency of men raised up from 
among the people themselves and laboring under the 
direction of a few foreign missionaries. It was thus 
its present rulers subdued its 100,000,000 inhabitants; 
it is only by the same means that they retain their pow- 
er. We may in this respect learn wisdom from the 
children of this world. Impressed with such views, the 
mission established boarding-schools at nearly all the 
stations, as the first step towards raising up a native 
ministry." It is interesting to note that the methods 
here recommended by Mr. Tracy became, some years 

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Biographical Sketches 

subsequently, the accepted policy of the Board, being 
adopted on the recommendation of Secretary Rufus An- 
derson and Dr. A. C. Thompson after their return from 
their visit to India and Ceylon, whither they had been 
sent on a deputation to study this and other questions. 
This seminary with sixty pupils was removed, in 1845, 
to Pasumalai, to the commodious quarters which Mr. 
Tracy himself had been building. His letters in 1844 
report nine Tamil schools connected with the mission, 
with 315 scholars. In all his educational work Mr. 
Tracy laid great emphasis upon religious training, and 
especially, as principal of the seminary, was he anxious 
to send forth as Christian men those who were to be- 
come teachers and guides of the people. With the 
exception of a period spent in the United States on ac- 
count of ill health, he passed twenty-two years of happy, 
useful life at Pasumalai. He had among his pupils 
almost all of the pastors, catechists, and teachers of the 
mission. More than 250 young men passed through 
the prescribed course of study during his administra- 
tion, and in most of the classes all the members became 
professing Christians before graduation. Many of 
these have engaged in evangelistic work, and some have 
occupied honorable positions in government service. 

Much of his time was given to preparing in the ver- 
nacular text-books in theology and Bible study. When 
delegates from several missions undertook the revision 
of the Tamil New Testament, he was placed on the re- 
vision committee, and spent upon this work portions of 
seven or eight years. Besides this work and the duties 
of preaching, teaching, and distributing Scriptures and 
tracts, he gave a portion of his time to itinerating. In 
a single journey of this sort, he visited forty villages, 
held forty-nine meetings, and, in all, preached to about 
2000 souls. 

In 1868, Mr. Tracy and his wife made a second visit 

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Williams College and Missions 

to this country and soon after their return, in 1870, they 
went to Tirupuvanam, where, though feeble, he labored 
to the last, aiding in distributing the funds raised in 
England for the famine-stricken, and ministering to 
the sick and distressed. 

In the Missionary Herald for April, 1877, there ap- 
peared a few months before his death a short article 
written by him on "Forty Years of Mission Life." 
The following extract from that paper records some 
of the more striking changes he had witnessed in the 
two score years of mission work. "I am reminded," 
he writes, "that day before yesterday ended forty years 
from the day I left my father's house on my way to 
India, — forty years filled with mercies and with 
proofs of the divine faithfulness, — and forty years of 
unbroken pleasant intercourse with the officers of 

the American Board Forty years have made 

many and great changes in the district. Then, there 
were scarcely any native Christians, .except a few 
connected with the regiments stationed here; now, 
there are over 8000 connected with the mission, in 
hundreds of villages. Then, there were no churches 
except those at two stations, composed of mission 
helpers brought from abroad; now, there are thirty- 
two organized churches. Then, there were no native 
pastors; now, there are seventeen, all engaged in mis- 
sion service, and most of them in pastoral charge of 
churches. Then, our helpers were brought from other 
districts; now, nearly all our greatly increased num- 
ber of helpers have been found and educated in our own 
mission. Then, it seemed an absurdity to the native 
mind to suppose that any Hindu would become a Chris- 
tian; now, the prevailing feeling among intelligent 
natives appears to be that Christianity is, ere long, to 
become the prevailing religion of the country. Then, 
the government was doing nothing for the education of 

[ 194] 



Biographical Sketches 

the common people; now, it is doing much for this ob- 
ject. Then, the prejudice against female education 
was exceedingly strong; now, the prejudice is giving 
way, and many females, old and young, are learning to 
read. Then, tracts and Scripture portions were given 
away to all who would receive them ; now, they are sold. 
Then, no school fees were received; now, they are paid 
in nearly all our schools. Then, it was necessary to pay 
girls for attendance at school; now, they pay fees 
instead." 

On November 8, 1877, almost forty-one years from 
the day of their embarkation for India, Dr. and Mrs. 
Tracy had the rare joy of welcoming their youngest son, 
Rev. James E. Tracy (Williams 1874), and his wife, 
as missionaries to the land of his birth. Parents and 
son were looking forward to many happy days of re- 
union and mutual support, after a long separation, 
when, on November 28, suddenly came the summons 
from the Lord of the harvest. Conscious to the end and 
with the words, "I am going home," at the ripe age of 
three score years and ten, he resigned his toil." 

While Dr. Tracy at different times engaged in the 
great variety of labors that usually falls to the lot of 
the foreign missionary, his most important work was in 
the line of education. The boarding-school which he 
opened the first year after his going to Tirumangalam, 
he lived to see become the high-grade seminary at Pasu- 
malai, and in the process of being developed into the 
college. Along with the earnest Christian spirit which 
pervaded all his teaching, he ever showed a rare tact 
and good judgment in the government of his school. 
With his good judgment and clear discernment he had 
an active mind and keen wit, and by reason of these 
qualities people loved to resort to his hospitable home 
to enjoy his cheery conversation or receive his wise 
counsel. His prudence and practical good sense, united 

' [ 195 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

with his kindly manner, aided him in his important 
work and secured for him the affection of his associates 
and the natives among whom he toiled. 

He was happy in being able to witness in his own 
lifetime some of the fruits of his labors and in being 
assured that the results of those labors would be 
enduring. 

He received the honorary degree of Master of Arts 
from Williams in 1853, and the degree of Doctor of 
Divinity from the University of Western Pennsylva- 
nia in 1868. 

He married November 23, 1836, Miss Emily Fran- 
ces Travelli, sister of Rev. Joseph Secundus Travelli, 
missionary in Singapore, and daughter of Francesco 
Travelli, who came to this country from Genoa, Italy. 
She was born in Philadelphia, February 20, 1811. 
Francesco Travelli was a man of culture and brought 
with him from Italy a considerable fortune, which he 
lost through the dishonesty of a business partner. He 
afterward became a teacher of violin and modern lan- 
guages. He married Abigail Monday, an English 
girl from Nottinghamshire, who was a staunch Presby- 
terian, while her husband was a Catholic. Through 
her influence, he became a Presbyterian. They had 
four children, all of whom grew up in the faith of the 
mother. 

Of six children born to Dr. and Mrs. Tracy, three 
sons are living, all of them graduates of this college: 
— George Henry Tracy (Williams 1866), a teacher 
in Gildersleeve, Connecticut; Joseph Travelli Tracy 
(Williams 1866), a teacher in New York City; and 
James Edward Tracy (Williams 1874), a missionary 
in Kodaikanal, South India. 

Besides letters and journals which appeared in the 
Missionary Herald, Dr. Tracy published various text- 
books in Tamil. 

[196] 



Biographical Sketches 

CLASS OF 1834 

Nathaniel Marcus Crane, son of Oliver and Su- 
sannah Crane, was born in West Bloomfield, New Jer- 
sey, December 12, 1805. His parents were pious, and 
taught the son the principles of truth. At the age of fif- 
teen, he went to Newark, New Jersey, where he learned 
a trade. In the time of his apprenticeship he made a 
profession of religion, and consecrating himself to the 
work of the ministry, he devoted the little property he 
had acquired by his industry to the preparation for his 
work. Having spent two years at Bloomfield Acad- 
emy, he entered Williams as a Freshman in 1830. He 
was catalogued here in his Sophomore and Junior years, 
but left before completing the course, apparently on ac- 
count of failing health. His health being restored by 
travel in the West, he entered Washington College, 
Pennsylvania, where he was graduated, probably, in 
1833. He then entered the Western Theological Sem- 
inary, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, where he spent two 
years, taking his Senior year at Auburn Seminary, 
from which he was graduated in 1836. Having de- 
cided, while at Allegheny, to become a foreign mission- 
ary, he was ordained by the Presbytery of Cayuga, in 
the autumn of 1836, and on November 23 sailed from 
Boston for India, under appointment of the American 
Board, with six other missionaries and their wives. He 
arrived at Madura May 10, 1837, and was stationed at 
Terupuvanum, twelve miles southeast of Madura. In a 
report rendered October 1, 1840, he wrote: "With the 
exception of a single tour made in company with Mr. 
Ward some months since, there has been very little vari- 
ety in my work. Attention to the language, distribu- 
tion of the Scriptures and tracts to those who call at my 
room for them, and something like a monthly distribu- 
tion in the villages where our schools are located, have 
constituted the routine of my labors." 

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Williams College and Missions 

In 1842, he is reported to have removed to Dindigul, 
thirty-eight miles northwest of Madura, where he was 
associated with Rev. John J. Lawrence. Here his 
work was done largely in connection with the schools. 
In giving a report of the station under date of October 
1, 1842, he wrote: "The free schools here are divided 
between Mr. Lawrence and myself. At present nine are 
under my charge, of which four are in town, and five 
in villages distant from Dindigul from one and a half 
to fourteen miles. The latter distance we feel, under 
ordinary circumstances, to be too great to sustain 
schools advantageously. But in the present case we 
are induced to keep up a few schools at that distance, 
because we find there, in one direction, a cluster of vil- 
lages too important to be neglected." In the same 
report he speaks of a boys' boarding-school with thirty- 
seven members, they having sent the first two classes 
of ten lads to the seminary which had been recently or- 
ganized at Tirumangalam. The following year, Mr. 
Crane was transferred to Madura to take the place of 
Mr. Ward, who had been removed to Madras. In 
Madura, he had charge of a female boarding-school 
and of ten native free schools. He met with great 
encouragement in his work, finding in many villages 
the people were not only desirous of having schools and 
ready to contribute to the support of schools, but were 
ready to embrace Christianity. 

After seven years of successful labor, he was com- 
pelled by ill health in 1845 to return to this country. 
After spending two years with friends in New Jersey, 
he removed with his family to Warren County, Penn- 
sylvania, where his health was so far restored by a resi- 
dence of two years on a farm, that he was enabled to 
commence preaching in 1848, and to continue in the 
pastoral work until his death. He labored for six years 
at Sugar Grove and Irvine, Pennsylvania, in the 

[198] 



Biographical Sketches 

bounds of Erie Presbytery. In the spring of 1854, he 
removed to Rimersburg, Clarion County, Pennsylva- 
nia, and took charge of the churches of Bethesda, New 
Bethlehem, and Middle Creek, being installed pastor 
over the Bethesda church in 1855, and continuing as 
stated supply of the other churches of his charge. In 
the autumn of 1857, he removed to the West, and spent 
the following winter in Illinois. The next spring he 
removed to Indian Town, Tama County, Iowa, where 
after eighteen months of pastoral work, he died of 
typhoid fever, September 21, 1859. 

"He was distinguished for his sincere and earnest 
devotion to his calling, the purity of his life, and the 
urbanity of his manners. He was a true missionary to 
the last, and died in the triumph of faith. His whole 
life was eminently one of conscientious and consistent 
piety. Unostentatious and meek in his whole deport- 
ment, none knew or observed him in his devoted per- 
formance of duty without being led to esteem him with 
affectionate consideration and regard." 

He was married November 7, 1836, to Miss 
Julia Ann Jerusha Ostrander, of Pompey, Onondaga 
County, New York. She, with two sons and four 
daughters, survived him. 

Cushing Eells, the third child and oldest son of 
Joseph and Elizabeth (Warner) Eells, was born at 
Blandford, Massachusetts, February 16, 1810. He 
was the grandson of Deacon Nathaniel Eells, who 
lived at North Coventry, Connecticut. The family is de- 
scended from John Eells, who came from Devonshire, 
England, to Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1630, and 
who, after living there until 1640, returned with his 
infant son, Samuel, to Barnstable, England. Samuel, 
who became a Major in Crom well's army, remained in 
England until 1661, when he returned to America, and 

[199] 



Williams College and Missions 

became one of the first settlers in Milf ord, Connecticut. 
He was a lawyer by profession, a man of wealth, and 
commanded a garrison in King Philip's War. He was 
the progenitor of all of the name of Eells in America. 
He had a son and a grandson, Nathaniel, who were 
graduates of Harvard in 1699 and 1728, respectively, 
and became ministers of the gospel. The grandson 
married Mercy Cushing, a daughter of Hon. John 
Cushing, and from this source came the given name of 
the subject of this sketch. 

The family has been distinguished for its patriot- 
ism, several members of it being officers or soldiers in 
the Revolutionary War. There have also been in the 
family numerous ministers of the gospel. The Pres- 
byterian Banner for October 7, 1885, in referring to 
Edward Eells, Jr., who had recently been licensed to 
preach, says: "He is the twentieth of the same name 
and family in the ministry of the gospel since 1703. 
All but one of these have been in Congregational or 
Presbyterian churches, graduates of Harvard, Yale, 
Williams, Hamilton, Pacific University, or the Univer- 
sity of Virginia, and all sound in the faith of the West- 
minster standards. Besides these, the multitude who 
as deacons and elders have served the church is unnum- 
bered. And not by any means less are the many daugh- 
ters of the family, who, as the wives and mothers of 
clergymen of other names, have served or are serving 
the cause of Christ in stations no less responsible." 

Cushing Eells spent his early years in Blandford, 
a town situated on a spur of the Green Mountains, 
where the rocky soil tended to produce energetic charac- 
ter in those who could overcome its obstacles and obtain 
from it a living. Here, in 1825, when past fifteen 
years of age, in a time of special religious interest, he 
became a Christian, though he did not unite with the 
church until two years later. It having been deter- 

[200] 



Biographical Sketches 

mined that he should go to college, arrangements were 
made for him to go to East Granville, a town seven 
miles distant, where he studied one summer with the 
pastor, Dr. Timothy M. Cooley (Yale 1792) . He was 
accustomed to walk thither on Monday mornings and 
return Saturday afternoons. The sight of young Eells 
going back and forth to school suggested to another 
youth, then working on his father's farm, that he too 
might go through college. This youth, the son of 
Deacon Coe, went through Yale College, and became a 
minister. For many years, as Rev. David B. Coe, 
D.D., he was one of the Secretaries of the Home Mis- 
sionary Society. 

Through the influence of his pastor, Dr. Clarke, 
young Eells, after a time, went to Monson Academy, 
where he prepared for college under Rev. Simeon Col- 
ton. During his academy and college course he re- 
ceived aid from the Education Society, which he subse- 
quently repaid in full. He entered college as a Fresh- 
man in 1830, being in the same class with Edward 
Weeks Boldero Canning, James Dixon, subsequently 
Senator from Connecticut, Nathaniel Herrick Griffin, 
Alexander Hyde, and Lewis Morris Rutherford. Dr. 
Edward Dorr Griffin was president and Mark and Al- 
bert Hopkins were members of the faculty. The col- 
lege was forty-five miles from his home. For the most 
of his course, on account of his poverty, he was accus- 
tomed to walk this distance, two or three times a year. 
In college he was a member of the Mills Theological 
Society, which was then composed of those who in- 
tended to become home or foreign missionaries, and 
also of the Philotechnian Society. On graduation, he 
entered the Theological Institute of Connecticut, where 
he was graduated in 1837. Certain events having 
called his attention to Africa as a missionary field, in 
1836 he offered himself to the American Board and was 

[201] 



Williams College and Missions 

appointed to the Zulu Mission. He was licensed to 
preach, December 14, of that year, and on October 25, 
1837, was ordained at Blandford, as a missionary to 
Africa. Owing, however, to the existence of war be- 
tween two powerful chiefs of the Zulus, the plan of 
going to Africa was given up, the winter of 1837-38 
being spent in teaching school, an employment in 
which he had spent most of his vacations. 

A few years before this, the Indians of Oregon had 
sent representatives to St. Louis to secure religious 
teachers. The Missionary Society of the Methodist 
Church had interested itself in this call, and about the 
same time, Rev. Samuel Parker (Williams 1806), of 
Ithaca, New York, offered himself to the American 
Board to go to Oregon to explore and report. Before 
carrying out this plan, however, Mr. Parker found Dr. 
Marcus Whitman, with whom, in the following spring, 
he started across the continent to explore Oregon. On 
reaching the American Rendezvous, on the Green River, 
they learned from the Indians so much as to the need 
of missionary work that Dr. Whitman turned back 
to secure help, while Mr. Parker went on. Dr. Whit- 
man secured as helpers Rev. H. H. Spaulding and 
wife and Mr. W. H. Gray, with whom he and his wife, 
in 1836, crossed the continent. Dr. Whitman settled 
in the Walla Walla valley, Mr. Spaulding at Lapwai 
among the Nez Perces, while Mr. Gray assisted at both 
places. The call for more laborers was so urgent that 
Mr. Gray returned east in 1837 for other helpers. The 
opportunity of going to Oregon was offered by the 
American Board to Mr. Eells and his betrothed and by 
them accepted. They were married March 5, 1838, and 
on the following day started on their bridal trip, which 
lasted until the last of April of the following year. In 
the long j ourney to Walla Walla they were accompan- 
ied by Rev. Elkanah Walker, Rev. A. B. Smith, Mr. 

[202] 



Biographical Sketches 

W. H. Gray and their wives, and Mr. Cornelius Rog- 
ers, who joined them at Cincinnati. The journey to 
Missouri was made by railroad, steamboat, and stage, 
and from there, beginning with April 23, the journey 
was by horseback. In the last of August, after the ex- 
piration of 129 days they arrived at Wai-i-lat-pu, the 
mission station occupied by Dr. Whitman and his fam- 
ily. This was the second time the distance between 
Missouri and Walla Walla had been travelled by 
women. Of the trials experienced on the journey by 
the party and borne by them with heroic endurance, 
some account is given in the diary kept by Mr. Eells. 
Some idea of the remoteness of the region through 
which they passed may be gained from the list of prices 
at the American Rendezvous, where they arrived on the 
23d of June and remained nearly three weeks. "Flour 
was two dollars a pound ; sugar, coffee, and tea, a dollar 
a pint; calico, worth in the States, twenty or twenty- 
five cents, was five dollars ; a shirt, five dollars ; tobacco, 
three to five dollars a pound; whiskey, thirty dollars a 
gallon." Of some of the dangers encountered, Mrs. 
Eells wrote: "During a considerable part of our jour- 
ney we are liable to be met by war parties of wild In- 
dians, and if we are not sufficiently strong, our animals 
may be taken and we left to wander in wilderness. The 
first week after we left Independence three of our best 
horses were stolen, which cost us two hundred dollars. 
We often speak of the journey as going to sea on land. 
I believe we all agree that no pen can fully paint the 
reality of it so that one will understand it who has not 
tried it." 

Oregon in 1838 included what is now Washington, 
Idaho, and some part of Montana and of Wyoming. 
All of this region and that now contained in half a 
dozen other of the far Western States were not consid- 
ered as belonging to the United States, and mission- 

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Williams College and Missions 

aries to those regions had to have passports. Mails 
then came twice a year, sometimes by the Hudson's Bay 
Company's vessels, sometimes by way of Cape Horn 
and the Sandwich Islands to Vancouver, which was the 
distributing office. Sometimes it required more than 
two years for a letter from Massachusetts to reach the 
missionaries. 

On arriving at Dr. Whitman's, the missionary party 
were located in different places, Messrs. Eells and 
Walker being appointed to begin a new station among 
the Spokane Indians. The place chosen was Tshima- 
kain, about six miles north of the Spokane River, and 
not far from Walla Walla. Having built two log 
pens for their future homes, they returned to Dr. 
Whitman's for the winter, during which period much 
time was given to the study of the Flathead lan- 
guage. On March 5, 1839, just one year after each had 
been married, Messrs. Eells and Walker started to 
complete their wedding tour, and in the last of April 
they began housekeeping in their new homes. The 
houses of the white people were log cabins, or of adobe. 
"That of Mr. Eells at Tshimakain had at first only 
earth for a floor and pine boughs for a roof. As that 
did not protect from rain, some earth was thrown upon 
the boughs. Still the rain came through, so a bear- 
skin was put over the bed to keep the occupants dry, 
while the boughs were laid upon the earth beneath, and 
when they became too dry were exchanged for new ones. 
This was for years the carpet for the mission mansion." 

Of the character and life of the Indians and the mis- 
sionary labor among them, a full and interesting ac- 
count is given by Mr. Eells in the Missionary Herald 
for 1840. Until the language was mastered, instruc- 
tion was given through an interpreter. Preaching 
services were held from the first, the language was re- 
duced to writing, Sabbath schools and week-day schools 

[204] 



Biographical Sketches 

were established, and an attempt made to teach the In- 
dians agriculture. Mr. Eells also did much itinerat- 
ing. In the year ending March 1, 1841, he had trav- 
elled for the station 1200 miles on horseback, in an ab- 
sence of fifty-seven daj r s. He also went more than 400 
miles to teach the Indians, a work which required an 
absence of twenty-three days more. Mr. Eells spent 
nine years at this station engaged in this work. Dur- 
ing these years occurred most important events that 
concerned not only the future of Mr. Eells' life but the 
future of the great Northwest. 

In the winter of 1842-3, Dr. Marcus Whitman, be- 
ing aware of the efforts of the Hudson's Bay Company 
to possess themselves of that region, made the memora- 
ble horseback ride across the continent, and by his rep- 
resentations made at Washington, saved to the country 
the great Northwest. It seems to be a pretty general 
belief that this patriotic act of Dr. Whitman brought 
about the terrible massacre, in November, 1847, when 
Dr. Whitman and wife of the American Board, and 
thirteen or more associates, were savagely killed. This 
massacre and the dangers consequent led the Board to 
discontinue the mission; although in the hope that, in 
accordance with the earnest desire of the Indians, the 
mission should be resumed, Messrs. Eells and Walker 
did not sever their connection with the Board until 
1855. 

On leaving Tshimakain Mr. Eells went to Fort 
Colville. His time henceforth was devoted to preach- 
ing and teaching. Although he was no longer con- 
nected with the mission, he never lost his interest in the 
tribes whom he called his Indians, and often had oppor- 
tunities of preaching to them. In the providence of 
God there were now open to him opportunities for the 
establishment of schools and churches which could never 
have come to him as a missionary to the Indians. The 

[205 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

years 1848-60 were spent in the Willamette valley. In 
1848-49 he was Principal of the Oregon Institute at 
Salem, Oregon, which has since become Willamette 
University; from 1849 to 1851 he was at Forest Grove 
as teacher in what was afterwards Pacific University; 
from 1851 to 1857 at Hillsboro; and again, from 1857 
to 1860 at Forest Grove as Principal of Tualatin Acad- 
emy. During all these periods he preached as he found 
opportunity, two or three times a month, rarely receiv- 
ing pay for so doing. 

While he was thus at work in the Willamette val- 
ley he felt that his home and real work were to be east 
of the Cascade Mountains, and when that region was 
declared open, he made a vacation journey there, partly 
to attend to the interests of the Board, and partly be- 
cause he was drawn there by his own wishes. In visit- 
ing the old mission station at Walla Walla and the 
grave of Dr. Whitman, he formed the plan of estab- 
lishing a Christian school of learning as a memorial of 
the martyrs. On speaking subsequently of his feelings 
when he remembered all that Dr. Whitman had done 
to save that region to the United States, and thought of 
the possible future, he said, "I believe that the power 
of the Highest came upon me." For the years 1860- 
82, his life was closely associated with Whitman 
Seminary, the charter for which was obtained at his 
request in the winter of 1859-60. Walla Walla, which 
is now a city of several thousand inhabitants, was then 
a small village with five families and about a hundred 
men. Whatever society there was, needed for some 
time the protection of a Vigilance Committee. To es- 
tablish a church and a seminary amid such surroundings 
meant the severest privations with the practice of the 
most rigid economy and self-denial. It required from 
Mr. Eells seven years of the hardest kind of toil, before 
the first building of Whitman Seminary, a structure 

[206] 



Biographical Sketches 

twenty by forty-six feet, two stories high, could be 
erected. To help pay the debt that rested upon this 
building at its dedication, Mr. Eells "farmed, raised 
stock, sold cordwood, peddled chickens, eggs and the 
like, and Mrs. Eells, though past fifty-seven, made four 
hundred pounds of butter." For a generation his life 
was devoted to the building up of this school. At the 
first meeting of the trustees, December 17, 1860, he was 
chosen President of the Board, and held this position 
until his death, a period of more than thirty-two years. 
For two years, 1867-69, he was Principal of the Sem- 
inary. During the same period he was school superin- 
tendent for Walla Walla County, then embracing a 
region nearly as large as Massachusetts. 

In 1872, having lost his house by fire, he removed 
to Skokomish, then the home of one of his sons. Al- 
though his life at Walla Walla was at an end, and 
though in the later years of his lif e he had other absorb- 
ing duties, his interest in Whitman Seminary, which in 
1883 became a college, continued unabated. His diary 
abounds in records of his efforts and prayers for this 
child of his faith and he was often heard to say, "I 
could die for Whitman College. " He gave to the col- 
lege, first and last, out of his own hard-earned property, 
$15,000 and spent nearly a year in 1883-84 in the East, 
where he secured for it $12,000. No one could dispute 
Father Eells' right to be called the "pious founder" of 
Whitman College. Not only by its foundation is 
Whitman the offspring of Williams, but in its boards 
of government and instruction it has been closely con- 
nected with Williams. Besides other graduates of 
Williams who have been on its faculty, James Francis 
Eaton, of the class of 1876, was one of its presidents 
and Dr. S. B. L. Penrose, of the class of 1885, is still 
its successful head. 

In the years 1872-1888, Mr. Eells, while continu- 

[207] 



Williams College and Missions 

ing his interest in educational affairs, devoted himself 
largely to home missionary work, although he never was 
a home missionary by the appointment of any Society. 
After organizing a church in Skokomish, of which he 
was pastor for two years, in 1877 he removed to Col- 
fax, where he organized another church, over which he 
remained as pastor four years. After spending some 
time at Medical Lake, he removed to Cheney, from 
which point as a center, though now more than three 
score years and ten, he performed labors in nine differ- 
ent places in three counties. After a year and a half 
he returned to Medical Lake, which for another year 
and a half became the center of various other preaching 
places. 

In 1888, after almost fifty years of active service 
on the Pacific Coast, Dr. Eells resigned his last pastor- 
ate, and went to Puyallup Reservation, near Tacoma, 
to the residence of his older son. In the past twelve 
years he had organized a new church in each of several 
places, aiding in the erection of the building, sometimes 
building a church himself and giving it to the people. 
In the published list of his benevolences there are 
named sixteen churches which he had aided, and to each 
of nine of these he had given a bell. 

His retirement did not mean cessation from work. 
During the five years that yet remained to him, he was 
still active in preaching and holding Bible services as he 
had opportunity. The Sabbath before his death, he 
attended church and participated in some of the serv- 
ices. He died of pneumonia on the return of his birth- 
day, February 16, 1893, completing his 83d year. 
Funeral services were held at the house and also at the 
Congregational Church. The burial was at Seattle, be- 
side the body of his wife. Memorial services were 
subsequently held at Walla Walla, Colfax, Medical 
Lake, and at Ravenswood, near Chicago, where 

[208] 



Biographical Sketches 

the address was made by Rev. Marcus Whitman 
Montgomery. 

The year following his death, a biography of 
"Father Eells" was published by one of his sons, Rev. 
Myron Eells, D.D. Few biographies tell more thrill- 
ing tales of early struggles, patient endurance, and de- 
voted self-denying service. Fifty-five years of fruitful 
labors, resulting in the evangelization of Indian tribes, 
the founding of two colleges, and the establishment of 
many churches, constitute a rare record for one life. 
Other men of like heroic mould will be born, but the op- 
portunity for doing such pioneer work as a missionary 
and statesman in this country cannot recur. That, 
with his slender income, he could give $30,000 to objects 
of benevolence, tells a story of rigorous economy in liv- 
ing, of heroic self-denial, and supreme devotion to the 
Master, rarely equalled in the annals of missionary lives. 
In many ways he reflected the life of Christ, but espe- 
cially in his modesty and humility, and in his love for 
service and Christlike submission to the will of God. Of 
him, Dr. Lyman Abbott, in the Christian Union, wrote, 
"A man of great and beautiful character, of unsur- 
passed consecration, and one to whom the republic of 
the United States owes a far greater debt than to many 
who have occupied a far more conspicuous place in his- 
tory." Rev. Dr. L. H. Hallock, his last pastor, wrote 
of him in the Congregationalist: "Thus passed away 
another historic character, one of God's noblemen, a 
man of modest demeanor, independent, and a stranger 
to fear, energetic, beloved. Fifty-five years of una- 
bated fidelity have left their lasting mark upon the re- 
ligious and educational interests of Washington, and 
always for good." 

Dr. Eells received the honorary degree of Doctor 
of Divinity from Pacific University in 1883. The 
higher title of "Father Eells" was given him by a grate- 

[209] 



Williams College and Missions 

ful and loving constituency on account of his fatherly- 
care over souls and his paternal watchfulness over in- 
fant churches. In 1883, he was Assistant Moderator 
of the National Council. 

Dr. Eells was married March 5, 1838, to Myra 
Fairbank, the oldest of eight children of Deacon Joshua 
and Sally H. Fairbank, of Holden, Massachusetts. 
She had made a profession of religion at the age of thir- 
teen and received her education at a ladies' seminary in 
Wethersfield, Connecticut. She died August 9, 1878, 
at Skokomish, at the age of 73. She had been the faith- 
ful helpmeet of her husband, sharing with him in his 
toil and self-denial, and enjoying with him his well- 
earned honors. 

Two children were born to them, — Rev. Myron 
Eells, D.D., a graduate of Pacific University and of 
Hartford Theological Seminary, for thirty-three years 
a missionary to the Indians of Western Washington, 
and author, who died in 1907; and Hon. Edwin Eells, 
who was for twenty-five years Indian Agent among the 
Puget Sound Indians, who is now retired and a resident 
of Tacoma, Washington. 

Besides letters printed in various papers, Dr. 
Eells published numerous Reports in the Missionary 
Herald, an article or two in the Home Missionary on 
his life work, a series of eight articles — originally eight 
addresses — in the Walla Walla Watchman, and a ser- 
mon in pamphlet form on the "Sabbath as a Day of 
Rest." 

Ozro French, son of William and Lydia (Esta- 
brook) French, was born at Dummerston, Vermont, 
June 8, 1807. He was converted at the age of twenty 
and soon after commenced at Brattleboro, Vermont, a 
course of study preparatory to the ministry. He en- 
tered college in 1830, having among his classmates 

[210] 



Biographical Sketches 

Cushing Eells and Nathaniel Herrick Griffin. He 
joined the Philotechnian and Mills Theological 
Societies. 

After graduation he pursued a course in theology 
at Andover Seminary, where he was graduated in 1837. 
Receiving an appointment from the American Board 
he sailed, with his wife, from Salem, Massachusetts, for 
India, April 1, 1839, arriving at Bombay August 10, 
having touched at Zanzibar and Muscat. After spend- 
ing a few weeks at Bombay he proceeded to Ahmed- 
nagar, where he remained about a year and a half. He 
then took charge of a new station which had been estab- 
lished at Sirur, on the road from Ahmednagar to 
Poona, twenty-eight miles from the former place and 
forty miles from the latter. The population of Sirur at 
that time was about 6500, being a mixed population 
and speaking a variety of languages, although all un- 
derstood the Mahratta. He commenced his residence 
here May 21, 1841. His journal of the year 1843 gives 
a full account of a tour among neighboring villages, 
where books and instruction were well received, and 
where he found almost every village eager for schools. 
At the close of one of these tours he remarked: "In 
these eleven days I have visited nineteen villages, dis- 
tributed 242 books, including fifty portions of the Scrip- 
tures, and proclaimed the gospel to many attentive and 
interested audiences. If the fruit of these labors shall 
be proportionate to the pleasure with which they have 
been performed, the time will have been well spent." 
The villages which he visited on this tour had a popula- 
tion of 6000 or 7000 and among them he did not find 
100 who were able to read. The territory which came 
especially under the care of Mr. French was almost 
sixty miles long and thirty-five broad, and embraced 
about 200 villages, large and small. The work he had 
to do consisted of preaching, distributing books, and the 

[211] 



Williams College and Missions 

establishment of schools; and in 1848 he could report 
that the whole region under his care had been "reached, 
to some extent, by preaching tours and the printed 
page." 

In March of this year he left his station for a time, 
and went to the seashore for the benefit of his health. 
He returned to his station in June, still in poor health, 
and left in December for America. For some months 
after his arrival he was engaged in the service of the 
Board as an agent. Having trouble with his eyes, and 
having no prospect of recovering the full use of them, 
he was constrained, in 1851, to ask for a release from 
all connection with the Board. 

He then received an appointment as a home mis- 
sionary and commenced his labors in Iowa in June of 
the same year. He spent a little over four years in this 
work at Bentonsport, about six years at Knoxville, two 
at Franklin and Lafayette, and a little more than a 
year at Blairstown and Fairfax. "In all these places 
he won the respect and esteem of his fellow citizens as 
an indefatigable and earnest Christian minister, and 
has left the memory and savor of a godly life and con- 
versation. Even irreligious men who were observers of 
his life and work were constrained to bear testimony 
to his Christian consistency and devotion, and to regard 
his removal as a public calamity." 

He died at Blairstown, after a brief illness, Septem- 
ber 28, 1865. 

Mr. French was married March 11, 1839, at Har- 
persfield, New York, to Miss Jane Hotchkiss, who sur- 
vived her husband many years, dying at Blairstown, 
December 27, 1900. 



[212] 



Biographical Sketches 

CLASS OF 1835 

Worcester Willey was born in Campton, New 
Hampshire, September 1, 1808, being the son of Darius 
and Mary (Pulsifer) Willey. He fitted for college at 
Kimball Union and Phillips Exeter Academies and 
entered college as a Freshman in 1831. In college he 
was a member of the Mills Theological Society, and 
also of the Philotechnian Society, of which he was for a 
time president. After graduation he studied theology 
at Andover Seminary, where he was graduated in 1840. 
Pie taught for a time both before and after leaving the 
seminary, being so employed from 1836 to 1838 in 
Ashby Academy and from 1841 to 1843 in Holmes 
Academy at Plymouth, New Hampshire, where he was 
principal. He was acting pastor at 'South Wellfleet, 
Massachusetts, 1840-41, and was then for a time resi- 
dent licentiate at Andover. During 1843-44 he was 
acting pastor at Hardwick, Vermont. 

He was ordained at Campton, October 3, 1844, and 
went, under the auspices of the American Board, as a 
missionary to the Cherokee Indians, being located at 
D wight station, which place he reached on January 31, 
1845. With the exception of a short residence at Fair- 
field, Mr. and Mrs. Willey remained at D wight until 
the mission was discontinued. 

The mission among the Cherokees under the aus- 
pices of the American Board was commenced by Rev. 
Cyrus Kingsbury in 1817. Though some missionary 
work had been previously done among this tribe by the 
Moravians and by the Presbyterian Church, this was 
the first mission to the Indians to be established by the 
American Board on this continent. During the earlier 
years the mission to the Cherokees was exceedingly 
prosperous. 

Rev. Alfred Finney, who with his brother-in-law, 
Rev. Cephas Washburn, established the station at 

[213] 



Williams College and Missions 

D wight, wrote to the Secretary of the American Board 
in 1824: "Those who when revolving in their minds the 
idea of Indians and savages, vainly imagine that noth- 
ing can belong to the aborigines of our country except 
what is frightful in appearance and deeply imbued with 
cruelty and barbarism, would scarcely believe them- 
selves to be in an Indian school, when surrounded by 
the children which fill our little sylvan seminary. Were 
they here, they would see nothing of that coarseness of 
feature, or ferocity of look, nothing like that dirty 
dress, ugly visage, and repelling countenance, and noth- 
ing of that hard, unkind, and cruel disposition, which 
they have been wont to associate with the Indian char- 
acter. But they would see a lovely group of children, 
who by the regularity of their features, their neat and 
cleanly dress, their fair complexions (fair indeed for a 
sultry clime), their orderly and becoming behavior, 
their intelligence and sprightliness, their mildness of 
disposition tempered with a manly spirit, and their 
progress in knowledge, would not suffer by a compari- 
son with most schools in a civilized land, nor disgrace 
respectable parents, in passing as their sons and 
daughters. 

"Such are our schools at Dwight; our precious chil- 
dren, not long since brought from the shades of the 
forest. We love them, and can but love them, for they 
are lovely. They are docile in their disposition, gener- 
ally quick in their apprehensions, prompt in their obe- 
dience, active and sprightly in their sports, and diligent 
and ambitious in their studies." 

This account refers to the Arkansas Cherokees and 
was written twenty years before Mr. Willey joined the 
mission and fourteen years before the forcible removal 
of the 16,000 Georgia Cherokees to the reservation west 
of the Mississippi River, when, in the journey of 600 or 
700 miles, and lasting four or five months, there per- 

[214] 



Biographical Sketches 

ished more than 4000 persons. This transaction, which 
as the result of unjust legislation enacted by state 
and national Government, makes one of the darkest 
pages of our history, is relieved, to some extent, by the 
fact that the missionaries of different Boards attended 
the tribe during their journey and ministered to their 
material and spiritual needs. 

The station of D wight, selected by Messrs. Finney 
and Washburn, and named in memory of President 
Dwight of Yale College, was located originally about 
130 miles above Little Rock, but in 1828, when the Ar- 
kansas Cherokees exchanged lands which they had pre- 
viously occupied for lands west of them, the station of 
Dwight was removed 100 miles westward. 

While Mr. Willey was expected to labor as a 
preacher, he exercised a wide influence in promoting the 
cause of temperance, and in aiding in the educational 
work. The whole number of scholars in the schools at 
the time of his beginning his work was about 170, and 
the number of church members about 240. Copies of 
works in the Cherokee language embracing over 700,- 
000 pages had been printed the previous years, besides 
GOO copies of a hymn-book in the Creek language. A 
printing establishment, owned by the Cherokee govern- 
ment, had been put in operation and a weekly news- 
paper, partly in the Cherokee and partly in the English 
language, had been issued. 

With such foundations, Mr. Willey continued with 
success the work begun by his predecessors, though the 
work was hard and often performed amid discourage- 
ment. Especially noticeable were the advances made 
by the people in civilization and in education. In 1851 
a seminary for girls and one for boys were opened and a 
society formed called the "Cherokee Educational Asso- 
ciation," which took decided ground in favor of a whole- 
some Christian influence in the public schools. 

[215] 



Williams College and Missions 

In the same year Mr. Willey made a tour to Grand 
River and found the people exceedingly anxious to ob- 
tain instruction and making special efforts to have sta- 
tions commenced among them. On September 15, 
1858, in speaking of the past year, he wrote: "It has 
been one of rich blessings to this church. The aspect 
of the field was never more encouraging." Yet two 
years later the mission was discontinued, the Pruden- 
tial Committee of the Board stating the reasons as fol- 
lows: "The Committee regard the appropriate work of 
the Board among that people as having been so far ac- 
complished and the further successful prosecution of its 
labors, at the same time, so far impeded by the inter- 
vention of other denominations, better situated for op- 
erating there than ourselves, as to render it proper and 
expedient for the Board to withdraw, and expend the 
funds hitherto devoted to this field in other more needy 
portions of the unevangelized world, where it can now 
work to better advantage." This, however, did not at 
once terminate the personal relations of the mission to 
the Board, and Mr. Willey remained with the Indians 
through the trials and perils of the Civil War and until 
1870, being located at Fort Gibson and vicinity. He 
then made Andover, Massachusetts, his home, and died 
there of cystitis, March 31, 1899, in his 91st year. 

"The godly training of the New Hampshire home 
and the Christian influence of college and seminary life 
gave him a fixed desire to make the world better by his 
faithful service." 

He married October 18, 1844, Mary Ann, daughter 
of Samuel and Mary (Richardson) Frye of Andover, 
Massachusetts, who died at Dwight, September 23, 
1850. He married next, May 18, 1854, Anna Sears, 
daughter of Sears and Ann (Knowles) Chase of South 
Dennis, Massachusetts, who died at Dwight, January 
27, 1862. 

[216] 



Williams College and Missions 

CLASS OF 1837 

David Tappan Stoddard, the youngest of eight 
children of Solomon and Sarah (Tappan) Stoddard, 
and grandson of Solomon and Martha (Partridge) 
Stoddard and of Benjamin and Sarah (Homer) Tap- 
pan, was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, Decem- 
ber 2, 1818. He was sprung from a distinguished and 
godly ancestry. His descent is traced from Anthony 
Stoddard, a Puritan emigrant from the west of Eng- 
land, who came to Boston about 1630, where he married 
Mary Downing, a niece of John Winthrop. Solomon, 
the oldest son of Anthony Stoddard, was graduated at 
Harvard in 1662, and at the age of twenty-nine was 
settled over the church in Northampton, where he re- 
mained as pastor till his death at the age of 86, a 
period of fifty-seven years. For the last two years of 
his life he had as his colleague his grandson, Rev. Jona- 
than Edwards. Colonel John Stoddard, the ninth child 
of Solomon, and the great-grandfather of the subject 
of this sketch, was graduated at Harvard in 1701, and 
became one of the most eminent men in the Province of 
Massachusetts. Solomon, his eldest son, was graduated 
at Yale in 1756, practised law at Northampton, and 
was High Sheriff for Hampshire County at the time of 
the American Revolution. He was "distinguished for 
his courtly manner, as well as for strict integrity." He 
had a brother graduate at Yale in 1758, and two sons in 
1787 and 1790, respectively. It is said that "of the 
male descendants of Anthony Stoddard, following sim- 
ply the line of Solomon, after the first generation, and 
then that of John, and of the second Solomon, with 
their children, at least thirty are known to have received 
a collegiate education." One of these, the brother of 
David, was the eminent Latin scholar, Professor Solo- 
mon Stoddard of Middlebury College. 

Solomon, the father of David, was born in North- 

[217 1 



Williams College and Missions 

ampton, was graduated at Yale in 1790, and studied 
law. On admission to the bar he practised law for a 
year and a half in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and 
for the rest of his life in his native town. For several 
years he was Clerk of the County Court and was sev- 
eral times sent by the town as one of their Representa- 
tives to the General Court of the Commonwealth. He 
is described as "of a modest, retiring disposition, and 
a man of unswerving integrity and uprightness. The 
chief glory of his character was his constant and exem- 
plary piety." 

The Tappan family, also, through which David 
Stoddard was descended on his mother's side, was emi- 
nent for piety, and especially for the due observance of 
household religion. The mother, along with a rare 
grace and beauty of person, united an uncommon 
sweetness and strength of character. Her wisdom, 
piety, gentleness, strictness without severity, united 
with a self-sacrificing kindness, and a uniformly cheer- 
ful, hopeful spirit, made the ideal home where children 
rise up and call the mother blessed. 

David, consecrated by his mother, from infancy, to 
the Christian ministry, was early taught to pray, to 
read the Scriptures daily, and to store his memory with 
hymns. Affectionate in nature, delicate in person and 
manners, sometimes teased by older boys for his almost 
girlish disposition, he was yet a boy among boys in 
sports, proving himself beyond his seniors in manly 
qualities. His vivacity and love of adventure combined 
with his amiableness of disposition made him a general 
favorite. In his boyish sports he early manifested a 
genius for mechanics and mechanical invention. 

He fitted for college in the famous Round Hill 
School at Northampton, which had been for some time 
under the joint superintendence of J. G. Cogswell, sub- 
sequently librarian of the Astor Library, and George 

[218] 



Biographical Sketches 

Bancroft, the historian. Among the influences that 
molded his character must be reckoned the teachings of 
Nature coming to him from mountain and river and 
meadow, and the voices of the past speaking of Ed- 
wards and D wight, both being akin to him, and the 
missionaries Brainerd and Lyman, whose lives were 
commemorated in the cemetery at Northampton. 

The first recorded expression of his purpose to serve 
the Lord is found in a letter written from New York, 
in his fifteenth year, in a season of special religious in- 
terest. While he did not make a public profession of 
faith in Christ, he seemed to have indulged such a hope 
that he decided to prepare himself for the work of the 
ministry. Probably on account of this state of mind, 
and possibly, in part, because the father had resided for 
a time in Williamstown, the parents decided to send 
the son to Williams College. He entered this institu- 
tion as a Sophomore, in the fall of 1834. Among his 
more distinguished classmates here were Israel Ward 
Andrews, later President of Marietta College, and 
Stephen Johnson Field, who became a Justice of the 
Supreme Court of the United States. In college he 
maintained the conscientiousness and purity he had 
shown in the home, and always exerted his influence in 
favor of order and good morals. Dr. Griffin was still 
president and Mark and Albert Hopkins were profes- 
sors. But the member of the faculty to whom he 
seemed to owe the most in the formation of his charac- 
ter was tutor Simeon Howard Calhoun (Williams 
1829), subsequently the missionary to Syria. While in 
his life at Williams he kept himself aloof from vice and 
was even zealous in the reform of college morals, there 
did not appear to be any marked development of reli- 
gious character. He seemed to appreciate the impor- 
tance of thoroughness of study, and felt the disadvan- 
tages of entering college too young and at an advanced 

[219] 



Williams College and Missions 

stage* These considerations may have had something 
to do with his being transferred at the close of the year 
from Williams to Yale. Yale was also the Alma Mater 
of his brother, Professor Solomon Stoddard, of his 
father and grandfather, as well as of many other rela- 
tives. Wishing to remedy somewhat the deficiency of 
entering an advanced class without adequate prepara- 
tion, he entered the Sophomore class at Yale, becoming 
a member of the class of 1838. A classmate recalls the 
appearance of the "fair-haired, ruddy, blue-eyed 
youth," and the brilliant recitation he made when he 
first appeared in the class-room. 

While he devoted himself to certain specialties, par- 
ticularly astronomy, he was a superior scholar in all 
subjects and took rank in the first third of his class. 
He did not court popularity but his courteous manners 
and charming simplicity of character drew to him as 
friends many of the better men in his class. While his 
early training and the impression of former religious 
experience kept him from open immorality, for much 
of his first year at Yale he seemed to have led a moral 
rather than a religious life. The Day of Prayer for Col- 
leges, — the last Thursday in February, 1836, — when 
there began a season of special religious interest, 
marked a new departure in his life and left with him 
impressions that soon brought to him a sense of gra- 
cious acceptance with God in Jesus Christ. From that 
time on, while he seems to have been keenly alive to the 
dangers of self-deception, there was no wavering of 
purpose and his piety became with him "an inward fire 
of zeal." The spirit of his life is revealed in a passage of 
a letter written soon after his change, "I believe that I 
am somewhat impressed with the importance of being 
an eminent Christian, and of giving up all for God." 
In this same letter he gives expression to the feeling 
that he was to become a missionary. His mother had 

[220] 



Biographical Sketches 

often expressed such a hope, and of late he had been 
deeply impressed by reading a fervent appeal addressed 
to young men by Dr. William Scudder of Madras. 

But his purpose to become a missionary was not to 
be carried out without tempting offers in other lines of 
usefulness. In his college studies he was particularly 
proficient in mathematics and the natural sciences. 
This proficiency brought to him in his Junior year the 
offer of a post in the United States Exploring Expedi- 
tion, then about to sail for the South Pacific, under 
Commander Wilkes. Although the position was one of 
honor as well as of emolument, he declined it because 
he regarded himself as consecrated to the work of the 
ministry. Later in his collegiate course his enthusiasm 
for scientific pursuits weakened, somewhat, not only 
his zeal for foreign missions, but even for the immediate 
duties of the Christian life. Under the instruction of 
Professors Olmsted and Silliman he developed a pas- 
sion for astronomy. The mechanical skill which he de- 
veloped in his boyhood was revived and enabled him to 
construct, from crude materials, two telescopes, one of 
them magnifying from two to four hundred times. 

Graduating with honor in 1838, he entered almost 
immediately upon a tutorship in Marshall College, 
Pennsylvania. This tutorship he held for a year, and 
about this time was called to a professorship of Natural 
Science in Marietta College, Ohio. Such a position, 
honorable and useful as it was, and for which he had 
shown a special fitness, possessed many attractions for 
him, but a solemn and full consideration of his life work 
at this time only confirmed his determination to preach 
Christ. Had he chosen teaching as his profession, he 
would undoubtedly have become eminent in his depart- 
ment and would have made lasting impressions on the 
characters of his pupils. His ideal of the teacher's du- 
ties, learned perhaps under tutor Calhoun at Williams, 

[221] 



Williams College and Missions 

may be inferred from an extract from a letter to his 
brother: "It is but a small portion of my duty," he 
writes, "to instruct in Latin and Greek; I mingle with 
the students at our. daily meals; they often call at my 
room for direction or advice — at which times I draw 
them into conversation; I instruct thirty in a Bible 
class on the Sabbath." 

His more mature purpose to enter the ministry 
turned him aside from his favorite sciences to the study 
of languages and literature. About this time he took 
up the study of Hebrew and German. Refusing an at- 
tractive invitation to become the assistant of Professor 
Loomis in the mathematical and philosophical depart- 
ment at Western Reserve College, in the fall of 1889 
he entered the Theological Seminary at Andover. 
Here, as a means of support he taught two hours a day 
in the academy, and for a few weeks he acted as tutor 
at Middlebury College. The offer of a tutorship at 
Yale placed before him the opportunity of providing 
for his support and of pursuing his theological studies 
at the same time. In accepting this appointment which 
he held for two years, he was influenced largely by the 
hope he had of exerting a direct influence for good upon 
the minds of the young men. He felt a deep religious 
responsibility for his class, and his letters show that in 
his work at Yale he grew more and more spiritual. 
Before the close of the year he was rejoicing in one of 
those revivals which formerly visited the college in al- 
most every generation of students. 

As he drew near to the close of his theological course 
and of the period of his tutorship, he became more and 
more impressed with the responsibility of preaching the 
gospel. In May, 1842, he was licensed to preach by an 
association of Congregational ministers in Western 
Massachusetts. In September of that year he inci- 
dentally met at Middlebury, Vermont, Rev. Justin 

[222] 



Biographical Sketches 

Perkins, D.D., who had recently returned to 
the United States from the Nestorian Mission, with 
the Nestorian Bishop, Mar Yohannan, and who urged 
upon Mr. Stoddard's attention the claims of that mis- 
sion. The result of two subsequent interviews with 
Dr. Perkins was Mr. Stoddard's definite decision to de- 
vote himself to the missionary work. This decision, once 
formed, was to him unalterable and irrevocable and 
gave new tone to his daily life. This chosen work of life 
he looked upon not as a task or sacrifice, but as a privi- 
lege and blessing. On December 15, 1842, he made for- 
mal application to the American Board to be appointed 
to the Nestorian Mission. He was ordained in New 
Haven, Connecticut, January 27, 1843, the Rev. Joel 
Hawes, D.D., of Hartford, preaching the sermon. On 
March 1, 1843, he and his wife sailed from Boston for 
Urumia, arriving at their destination on June 14 
following. On the same vessel were Dr. and Mrs. Per- 
kins, the pioneers of the Nestorian Mission; Mar Yo- 
hannan returning to his native land; Mr. and Mrs. Bliss 
— to take up their residence at Trebizond — Miss Cath- 
erine E. Myers and Miss Fidelia Fiske, who were to 
take charge of female schools at Urumia. The voyage 
was to Smyrna and thence to Trebizond by water. The 
journey from this latter place was by caravan across 
the mountains of Armenia and the plains of Persia. 

The district of Urumia lies at the base of the Kur- 
dish mountains in the northwestern province of Persia. 
In an amphitheatre inclosed between spurs of the moun- 
tains and the lake lies the plain of Urumia, which is 
about forty miles in length and ranging in width from 
ten to twenty miles. It teems with an almost tropical 
vegetation and has been described as "dotted over with 
some 300 villages, each surrounded with luxuriant 
wheat-fields, vineyards, fruit-gardens, and melon- 
patches ; while the plain in every part is intersected with 

[ 228 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

numberless water-courses, diverted from the principal 
rivers, whose banks, fringed with willows, remind one 
of the beautiful promise of Jehovah to the children of 
his people, 'they shall spring up as willows by the water- 
courses.' ' This region is the home of the remnant of 
the Nestorian Church. The first mission to this people 
was established in the city of Urumia, which had a pop- 
ulation of about 25,000, but owing to the intense heat 
of the plains, a health resort was established at Seir, a 
mountain about five miles from the city. 

The sect of the Nestorians originated in a protest 
against the worship of the Virgin Mary, and the people 
have been appropriately called The Protestants of Asia. 
Their worship, however, is encumbered with many use- 
less ceremonies and when American missionaries first 
went among them, the people as a whole were sunk in 
ignorance and formalism. But in their freedom of ac- 
cess to the people and in the reverence with which they 
are received, the missionaries to this interesting people 
stand upon an unusually favorable footing. 

The welcome extended to Mr. and Mrs. Stoddard 
could hardly have been more cordial had they been old 
friends to the people. The following extract from a 
letter of Mr. Stoddard to his parents describes the 
events of the last stages of their long journey: ''The 
next morning we started again very early and were at 
Gavalan by breakfast time. As we approached the 
village, Hive or six on horseback galloped out to meet us, 
with cries of 'Hoshe geldiz, hoshe geldiz' (You have 
come welcome). They proved to be friends from the 
mission, whose names were familiar to us all — Priest 
Abraham, Joseph, Mar Yohannan's brother, John, and 
Moses. On entering the village, men, women, and chil- 
dren poured out to join and welcome our party. We 
were escorted as if in a triumphal procession through 
the town to the house of Mar Yohannan's father. The 

[224] 



Biographical Sketches 

old couple were overjoyed; said that they were made 
some years younger by their son's return, and that they 
praised God for his goodness. Soon Mar Joseph, an 
old bishop with a silver beard, and half a dozen priests 
from Urumia, came in with their "Salam aleyhim" 
( Peace — peace be to you ) . Our tents were erected in 
the old priest's garden, and during the day we were 
thronged with visitors. My heart was full. I was not 
prepared for such a welcome — such a hearty grasp of 
the hand — such an overflowing of cordial feeling." 
While Mr. Stoddard felt that some of the motives un- 
derlying the welcome might be due to unworthy mo- 
tives, yet in the actual experience of missionary life, 
his correspondence reveals no expression of regret or 
discontent. 

Mr. Stoddard at once devoted himself with eager- 
ness to the study of Turkish and modern Syriac. His 
fine classical scholarship made the acquisition of the ori- 
ental tongues a comparatively easy task, and so rapid 
was his progress in Syriac that in October, 1843, five 
months after his arrival at Urumia, he was able to take 
considerable part in the instruction of Nestorian youth. 
About this time the male seminary was reorganized 
and committed to his care. Of his peculiar fitness for 
that position Dr. Perkins has said: "We all felt that no 
living man could be found more competent to assume 
the very responsible task of rearing a generation of 
well-educated and pious Nestorian preachers, whether 
we regarded the very high order of his own intellect, his 
finished culture, his moral character, or his holy walk 
and conversation. And the result has shown that we 
did not misjudge in the matter." 

The mission was not without its trials and in these 
Mr. Stoddard had his share. Within the period of the 
first two years of his missionary life there arose the vio- 
lent opposition of the Patriarch and his family, which, 

[225] 



Williams College and Missions 

combined with the intrigues of the Jesuits, compelled 
the missionaries of the Board to close all the schools 
which they had established outside the mission prem- 
ises and to remodel the seminary at Urumia. For a 
time he had but ten or a dozen boys to teach and that too 
in his family, yet he did not repine, and at that very 
time could write : "I do not envy the situation of any 
living man; I am just where God would have me be, 
and here I mean to stay just so long as He wants me; 
then I shall be ready to go somewhere else." 

Mr. Stoddard was an eloquent and earnest preacher, 
and as a teacher the spiritual welfare of his pupils was 
ever uppermost in his thoughts. His knowledge of as- 
tronomy and his mechanical skill were of great service 
to the mission. He transported from Boston to 
Urumia the telescope he had constructed and made 
good use of it in advancing the cause of science, and 
even of religion. To remedy the lack of punctuality 
in the exercises of the seminary he constructed sun-dials 
at various points. When a large plain clock was re- 
ceived from America he learned how to clean and regu- 
late it. He was an expert in repairing a wagon, and 
was able to superintend the unskilled Persian workmen 
employed in erecting or repairing buildings for the 
mission. But all this was subordinate and contributory 
to the saving of souls. He continually yearned for the 
outpouring of God's spirit. In the year 1846 occurred 
in both the male and female seminaries a powerful re- 
vival of religion, which extended also to the villages. 
It was the first general awakening in a church which 
had slept for ages. A full and most interesting narra- 
tive of this revival was prepared by Mr. Stoddard at 
the request of the mission. The effects of the revival 
were long noticeable in the general tone of the students. 
Not only were the professing Christians more spirit- 
ually minded, but even those who made no profes- 

[226] 



Biographical Sketches 

sion of religion were more diligent in the acquisition of 
knowledge. 

About this time Mr. Stoddard made a tour among 
the Nestorians of the mountains. He spared no 
strength in his eagerness to save souls. Often after 
preaching in the village church, he would converse con- 
cerning the things of the kingdom till late at night with 
a little group on the housetop. He was of slender 
physical frame and these manifold labors began to tell 
seriously on his health. About this time, from consid- 
erations of expediency and partly for the improvement 
of his health, the mission decided to remove the male 
seminary from the city to Mount Seir. Mr. Stoddard 
was asked by the mission to superintend the work of 
erecting a new building, in the hope, partly, that the 
relaxation would benefit his health. In the summer of 
1847 there came at Urumia a fearful visitation of the 
cholera. The added care and anxiety of this period told 
seriously upon Mr. Stoddard's health, and in Septem- 
ber the mission urged him to try the effect of a journey 
to Erzroom. He failed to find the benefit hoped for 
and almost immediately on his return he was prostrated 
with an illness which kept him an invalid for many 
months. His convalescence was slow and by no means 
equal to the ardor with which he resumed his work. 
The heat of the summer so prostrated him that he was 
urged to take an entire release from labor and try the 
effect of a journey to Erzroom, Trebizond, and Con- 
stantinople. He was destined to be called to pass 
through deep waters. Reaching Trebizond near the 
end of July with his wife, two children and nurse, he 
was detained in quarantine by reason of the cholera, 
and within a few days his wife was suddenly taken from 
him by the disease. Forming the purpose to take the 
children to America, he proceeded to Constantinople, 
when death met his family again and removed, by the 

[ 227] 



Williams College and Missions 

same disease, the nurse who had cared for the children. 
From Constantinople he proceeded to England and 
then to Scotland to visit a brother residing near Glas- 
gow. He reached America the last week in October, 
1849, his intention being, after a brief sojourn in this 
country and finding a home for his children, to return 
to his field early in the spring of the following year. 
Instead of a few months his sojourn was prolonged 
to two years and a half. His heart was in the mission 
field and three times during this period he assayed to 
go back to his beloved Nestorians, but was hindered by 
the events of Providence. The recovery of his health 
was slow because of the incessant labors in which he en- 
gaged here. These labors were of the greatest impor- 
tance to the cause of missions. He visited the various 
theological seminaries, to enlist missionaries for the 
Nestorians, and addressed churches and various Chris- 
tian assemblies throughout the United States. His 
addresses were remarkable for the graphic description 
of his field, for the comprehensive view of the mission- 
ary work, and for the enthusiasm with which he was 
lifted above himself and carried his audience with him. 
His addresses, with the "seraphic glow of his counte- 
nance," at the meeting of the Board in Pittsfield were 
an inspiration to all who were present. Some idea of 
his constant activities may be gathered from this descrip- 
tion of a missionary convention in Vermont: "The 
meetings were animated and I hope profitable for us all. 
I did not get off with less than four addresses, all of 
which would be nearly two hours in length. I begged 
hard to be excused, but there are some places where beg- 
ging is of no avail. I stayed at home from one meet- 
ing (of the Sabbath-school scholars), on purpose to 
avoid importunity; but they sent two strong men and 
dragged me out. What could I do? A poor weak man 
that weighs only 117 pounds?" 

[ 228 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

Much of his time was spent in the immediate serv- 
ice of the Board. A most important service was ren- 
dered by him when, at the request of the Secretaries, 
he took charge of the Journal of Missions and of the 
Dayspring, which, in a short time, reached the circu- 
lation of 50,000 each. About this time he was applied 
to to take charge of Mount Holyoke Seminary, but he 
was becoming more and more eager to join his mission- 
ary associates in Persia, with whom he kept in close 
communication. 

When the time came for him to return to his field, 
it was evident that the Providence of God had used his 
detention in this country to prepare him for higher use- 
fulness. In that long period his system had become re- 
invigorated, his sorrows soothed, and one given to him 
to restore his shattered home and to become his helper 
in the missionary life. 

On the 4th of March, 1851, he and his wife and 
daughter Harriette, with Misses Cowles and Whittle- 
sey and Mr. Rhea, all destined to the oriental field, em- 
barked at Boston for Smyrna. His return to Urumia 
gave occasion for a most hearty welcome. After speak- 
ing of the welcome received at the village of Mar Yo- 
hannan, he continues his account: "The next morning, 
while crossing the plain of Urumia, we arrived at a vil- 
lage twelve miles from the city, where a company of our 
brethren and sisters, with their little ones and many 
Nestorians, met and greeted us with deep and tender 
emotions. A tent had been pitched and a breakfast 
prepared and we all sat down on the grass, under the 
grateful shade, to partake of the bounties of Providence. 
Our hearts were full. . . . 

"And when, soon after noonday, we set out for the 
city, our progress resembled more a triumphal proces- 
sion than a caravan of weary travelers. Every succes- 
sive mile added to our numbers, and our way was often 

[229] 



Williams College and Missions 

almost blocked up by the people who came in throngs 
to meet us — some on horseback — some on foot — bish- 
ops — priests — deacons — village school teachers — mem- 
bers of the seminary, with whom I had many times 
wept, and prayed, and praised — all pressing forward in 
eager haste to grasp our hands, and swell the notes of 
welcome." 

Mr. Stoddard returned to his field in the full ma- 
turity of his powers. He had the experience of years 
of training in the missionary service and had now the 
experience of protracted intercourse with the Secre- 
taries of the Board. His counsels, always valued, 
were now of greater worth, because after his long ab- 
sence he could form an impartial judgment of the mis- 
sion and its work, and could represent the views of the 
home committee, from long intercourse with whom he 
had recently come. 

He entered with zeal upon the duties of the semi- 
nary, now assuming the extra care of instructing the 
older pupils in theology. He also had charge of Geog 
Tapa, ten miles distant, where he spent occasionally a 
Sabbath, and where was a Sabbath-school of 300 pupils. 
He took an enlarged view of the work of missions and 
wrote many letters to missionaries laboring in other 
fields. The superiority of his scholarship enabled him 
to render efficient service in the field. He aided Dr. 
Perkins in his work of translating the New Testament 
from the ancient into modern Syriac. He also pre- 
pared a grammar of the modern Syriac for the use of 
beginners; and commenced work upon a dictionary of 
the same language. He also kept up his old interest in 
the physical sciences, particularly in astronomy, among 
other things making observations on the zodiacal light 
and the satellites of Jupiter, which attracted the atten- 
tion of Sir John Herschel. An extended notice of the 
meteorology of Urumia, prepared by him, was pub- 

[280] 



Biographical Sketches 

lished in Sillimans Journal, But these investigations 
he regarded as incidental and conducive to the great 
work of making known Jesus Christ. 

Mr. Stoddard had large experience in dealing with 
the civil authorities and more than once was sent on a 
mission to treat with the Persian officials concerning the 
work of the missionaries in Urumia. In the autumn 
of 1856 he was deputed with Dr. Wright to undertake 
the difficult and delicate embassy of going to Tabriz, 
there to wait upon the high civic functionaries. On his 
return from this embassy, which was not very success- 
ful, Mr. Stoddard, at the request of the mission, ad- 
dressed a letter to Sir J. Anderson, of Glasgow, setting 
forth the oppression of the Nestorians, and expressing 
"the earnest hope that, on the return of the English em- 
bassy, free toleration may be secured for the Christians 
of Persia." But about this time, in the Providence of 
God, relief came by the assassination by a Kurd of the 
great oppressor of Urumia and the great enemy of the 
mission work there. A letter addressed to Rev. Mr. 
Rhea December 20, 1856, describing these events, 
proved to be the last letter from the pen of Mr. Stod- 
dard. His stay at Tabriz had been prolonged to three 
weeks, during which time he suffered from a change of 
food and was greatly worried about the affairs of the 
mission. These things rendered his overworked sys- 
tem peculiarly liable to disease. Before reaching Seir, 
on his homeward journey, he suffered from a fever 
which proved to be the typhus. On reaching home and 
finding two of the native teachers laid aside by sickness, 
he took double lessons in the seminary and even 
preached, besides attending to the correspondence that 
had accumulated in his absence. Medical skill and the 
most tireless nursing could not subdue the fever which 
was lurking in his veins and which undermined his 
strength. He died on January 22, 1857. The funeral 

[231] 



Williams College and Missions 

services, which were mostly in Syriac, were attended by 
a large number of Nestorians, from the former pupils of 
the seminary, from Geog Tapa, and other near villages. 
Mr. Cochran preached from the text, "Let me die the 
death of the righteous," and Mar Yohannan offered the 
last prayer. Even Mohammedans joined in paying 
tributes to the memory of Mr. Stoddard. The following 
extract is from the pen of one of his colleagues, Rev. 
Samuel A. Rhea: "His life illustrates the value of thor- 
ough scholarship for the missionary, and of those hab- 
its of order, system, and accuracy which characterize 
the scholar. The pleasing impression which he made 
upon all classes, shows how much the missionary should 
cultivate the suaviter in modo as well as the fortiter in 
re, and a more perfect illustration of what a missionary 
should be in all his intercourse with his associates, of a 
manly expression of his own sentiments, with perfect 
tolerance toward the opinion of others, combined with 
great courteousness and gentleness, would be hard 
to find among the walks of men. He was ever noble 
and generous to confess a fault, or acknowledge an 
error." 

The following passage, quoted in the sketch of Mr. 
Stoddard given in the "Encyclopaedia of Missions," 
contains an excellent summary of his leading character- 
istics: "His talents, his varied acquirements, his energy 
and activity in the midst of weakness, his humility, his 
devoted piety, his kindly sympathy and warm affection, 
his willing gentleness, meekness, simplicity, and godly 
sincerity, made him decidedly 'a man of mark,' and se- 
cured from all who knew him high respect, and from 
many ardent attachment." 

A Memoir of Mr. Stoddard was published, soon 
after his death, by his classmate and friend, Rev. Dr. 
Joseph P. Thompson, then pastor of the Broadway 
Tabernacle Church, New York City. To that Memoir, 

[232] 



Biographical Sketches 

the writer of the present sketch acknowledges his 
indebtedness. 

While Mr. Stoddard was an eloquent and inspiring 
preacher, the two principal departments of his mission- 
ary labors were his teaching in the seminary, where he 
instructed youth in the knowledge of Christian civiliza- 
tion and Biblical divinity, and the perfecting of the 
translation of the Scriptures from the ancient Syriac 
into the vernacular. The influences which he thus set 
in motion are still in operation for the regeneration of 
Persia. 

He married February 14, 1843, Miss Harriette 
Briggs, daughter of Dr. Calvin Briggs of Marble- 
head, Massachusetts. She died of cholera at Trebizond, 
August 2, 1848. Their children were two daughters. 

He was married, secondly, to Miss Sophia D., 
daughter of Rev. Austin Hazen, of Berlin, Vermont, 
and sister of Rev. Allen Hazen, D.D., missionary in 
Western India. 

Besides numerous letters published in the Mission- 
ary Herald, and some published, posthumously, in the 
"Memoir," Mr. Stoddard published "A Grammar of 
Modern Syriac," in the Journal of the American Orien- 
tal Society (1855), and a "Notice of the Meteorology 
of Urumia" in Silliman's Journal. 



CLASS OF 1840 
Henry Martyn Scudder, eldest son of Rev. John 
Scudder, M.D., and Harriet (Waterbury) Scudder, 
and grandson of Dr. Joseph and Maria (Johnston) 
Scudder, was born in Panditeripo, Jaffna District, Cey- 
lon, February 5, 1822. The family is descended from 
Thomas Scudder, who came from London, England, 
to Salem, Massachusetts, about 1635, and is of great 
distinction both in England and in the history of this 

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Williams College and Missions 

country. Colonel Nathaniel Scudder, the great-grand- 
father of the subject of this sketch, was a graduate of 
the College of New Jersey in the class of 1751, and for 
a time a trustee of that college ; was a practising physi- 
cian in Monmouth County, New Jersey; a member of 
the Committee of Safety; Lieutenant- Colonel in 1775, 
and subsequently Colonel of the 1st Monmouth County 
Regiment, and was killed while leading his regiment 
against the British at Black Point, New Jersey, in 
1781. He also represented Monmouth County in the 
New Jersey legislature several times; was Speaker in 
1776; delegate to the Continental Congress 1777-79; 
and on July 13, 1778, he visited the legislature of New 
Jersey to urge upon that body the policy of signing 
the Articles of Confederation. Dr. Nathaniel Scudder 
was a close personal friend of Washington. 

Dr. Scudder's wife, Isabella Anderson, was a fa- 
mous beauty and a woman of rare character and refine- 
ment. Her grandfather, Hon. John Anderson, was 
President of His Majesty's Council, Commander in 
Chief of the Province of New Jersey, and, later, Act- 
ing Governor of the Province. 

The name of Scudder is also one of the most illus- 
trious in the annals of the American Board. In the 
index of Dr. Anderson's volume on India is a list of 
sixteen missionaries of this name; all kindred, and all 
but two belonging to the same branch of the family. 
The founder of this famous missionary house was Rev. 
John Scudder, M.D., the father of Henry Martyn 
Scudder. Graduating as had his father and grand- 
father, from Princeton, and from the New York Col- 
lege of Physicians, he practised successfully his profes- 
sion in New York City, till 1819, when he went to In- 
dia, as the first medical missionary of the American 
Board. He settled in Ceylon, where he labored for 
nineteen years as clergyman and physician, his most im- 

[234] 



Biographical Sketch es 

portant service there being the establishment of a large 
hospital, of which he was the physician in charge. He 
also founded several native schools and churches. He 
was transferred to the Madura station in 1839, and with 
the exception of the years 1842-46, which were spent in 
the United States, he labored there till the time of his 
death in 1855. During the years mentioned above as 
spent in the United States he devoted himself to awak- 
ening a missionary spirit among the rising generation, 
and in that time he addressed over 100,000 children. 
He was the author of various published writings of a 
religious nature. Of fourteen children, all of the seven 
sons and two daughters who reached adult years, be- 
came missionaries in Southern India. These sons are 
said to have given more than 250 years of service to mis- 
sionary work in India. Of Dr. Scudder Dr. Anderson 
wrote, "His aim was single, his labors indefatigable, 
and it is presumed his energies could not have found a 
more ample scope." 

Henry Martyn Scudder came to the United States 
in 1832, when he was ten years of age. The years of 
his preparatory studies, some of which were spent at 
Greenwich, Connecticut, were cheerless ones. Poverty 
combined with harsh treatment from companions and 
teachers to make his boyhood "hard, sad, loveless." 

Ready for entrance to college at the age of fourteen, 
he was prevented by poverty from going to Princeton, 
where three generations of ancestors had been gradu- 
ated, and entered New York University. Owing to 
some trouble in the faculty there, Scudder with some 
other students left in the Junior year and entered 
Williams College as a member of the class of 1840. In 
consequence of his hard experience as a friendless 
youth, which had produced in him a strong distaste for 
religion, he steeled himself against the teachings of his 
parents and lived a reckless life. It was the personal 

[235 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

influence of President Hopkins, who took young Scud- 
der into his own home, which checked the wild career of 
the youth. He remained in Williams less than a year, 
and returning to the University of New York, was 
graduated there in 1840. In Williams he became a 
member of the Philotechnian Society and in the Uni- 
versity of New York a member of the Psi Upsilon 
Fraternity. He was a superior scholar, attaining to 
the Phi Beta Kappa rank. In his Senior year he was 
converted under the evangelistic preaching of Rev. Dr. 
Edward N. Kirk, who was then holding special exer- 
cises in the old Carmine Street Church. He united 
with this church in April of his Senior year. His reli- 
gious experience, like Paul's, was a definite and whole- 
souled change. Prom the moment of his conversion, 
missionary service in India became his ruling idea. He 
entered Union Theological Seminary in the fall of 1840, 
graduating as Bachelor of Divinity three years later. 
In the seminary, as in college, he had to contend with 
poverty, supporting himself by addressing copies of the 
New York Observer to subscribers, receiving therefor 
$1.50 per week, — his entire income. He was licensed 
to preach by the Third Presbytery of New York, April 
5, 1848, commissioned missionary of the American 
Board to India, July 11, and ordained by the same 
Presbytery November 10. Por one year, 1843-44, he 
was stated supply in the Presbyterian Church of New 
Roehelle, New York. Recommendations sent to the 
American Board show how the personality of Mr. 
Scudder had impressed older men who had come in con- 
tact with him. Chancellor Theodore Frelinghuysen, of 
the University of New York, wrote: "His mind is 
very active, acute, and discriminating, — his feelings are 
naturally ardent, but controlled by a resolution that is 
the fruit of a good measure of Christian decision. 
From his very commendable progress in science here, 

[236] 



Biographical Sketches 

I have no doubt that his attainments are now of supe- 
rior order." Rev. Drs. Henry White and Edward 
Robinson wrote: "Mr. Scudder is characterized by- 
deep and ardent piety, and by devotedness to the work 
of the Lord. His talents are of a high order; indeed 
we know of few young men, from whom more may be 
anticipated in this respect." 

On May 6, 1844, Mr. Scudder, with his wife and 
some others, among them Rev. Henry R. Hoisington 
(Williams 1828) and wife, embarked from Boston in 
one of Tudor's rice ships for India. After a voyage 
of 120 days he arrived in Madras September 5. He 
was said to be the first missionary son sent forth by the 
Board. 

Mr. and Mrs. Scudder were stationed first at 
Madura (1844-46), and next at Madras (1846-50). 
Impressed with the great value of medical work, 
Mr. Scudder studied medicine in the English Med- 
ical College in Madras and after completing his 
studies, received the degree of M. D. from the Uni- 
versity of New York in 1853. He was thus the fourth 
physician in direct family descent, and was for a 
time associated with his father, whom he assisted in 
the practice of medicine. Having rented a house 
in the most populous part of the city, by preaching in 
the yard or street they were enabled to reach many 
thousands. They also distributed a great number of 
Tamil and Telugu books and tracts. A house of wor- 
ship was erected at Chintadrepettah, which place to- 
gether with the station at Madras gave them regular 
congregations of about 500. 

In a letter written from Madras in 1848, Mr. Scud- 
der gives his ideal of what a missionary in India should 
be and do, "Some may say," he writes, "that 'a mis- 
sionary's duty is simply to deliver his message and avoid 
all discussions.' If that be admitted, then the mission- 

[237] 



Williams College and Missions 

ary's talents and attainments need to be but slender. 
But I feel great difficulty in admitting this. When I 
deliver the message, it is assailed. Acute intellects 
press upon me their objections. Every point in the 
Christian system will, when known, be minutely ques- 
tioned. Reasons will be demanded; and I cannot be- 
lieve that my duty has ceased with the mere delivering 
of the message. I feel that, to the best of my ability, 
I must defend Christianity against the systems of In- 
dia. Hindus are now becoming acquainted with the 
Christian religion, and are rising to the work of attack- 
ing it on every side, and of extolling and defending 
their own religion. Can a missionary be quiet? 
When the infidels of Europe rose en masse against the 
gospel, did not Christian ministers defend the truth? 
Would they have been justified in remaining silent at 
such a time? Hinduism and Christianity are meet- 
ing in conflict. We need men of sanctified talents, men 
who can cope with minds as subtle as those of European 
infidels, and that too in a language not their own." 

Being anxious to get out to the frontier, Mr. Scud- 
der with his wife in 1850 moved to Arcot, which lies 
seventy-one miles west from Madras, and in 1851, be- 
ing joined by his brother, Rev. W. W. Scudder, the 
Arcot Mission was duly founded. He opened in this 
city a hospital which to-day is under the charge of his 
nephew, Rev. L. R. Scudder, M.D., and gave himself 
unreservedly to general missionary work. In 1851 the 
mission at Arcot was detached from the Madras Mis- 
sion and was carried on wholly by the Scudder family, 
consisting of five brothers, their wives and a sister. 
This mission, which occupied the North Arcot District, 
contained more than 1,000,000 souls. Stations were 
opened at Vellore, Chittur, and Arnee. The principal 
work of the mission was preaching, which was carried on 
in the streets of the towns and villages of the whole dis- 

[238] 



Biographical Sketches 

trict. For this work the brethren of the mission had a 
peculiar fitness, born as they had been of missionary 
parents in India and taught the spoken language at an 
early date. Besides preaching the gospel freely in al- 
most every street of their stations, as they reported, the 
brethren made several extended tours and established 
for children of professed and nominal Christians, six 
schools, containing over 100 pupils. 

In 1857 the Arcot Mission was transferred to the 
Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Dutch 
Church, and Dr. Scudder and the other members were 
released from their connection with the American 
Board. In December of this year, Dr. Scudder, thor- 
oughly broken down in health, left for the United 
States. Years of intense study, — fourteen to sixteen 
hours per day, — in the oppressive climate of India, ideas 
of missionary economy which directed the non-use of 
punkas as a luxury, and untiring work as a preacher, 
physician, itinerating evangelist, and translator, finally 
did their work and made a change necessary. He had 
become a master in the use of the Tamil, the language 
of his childhood, and his experience in street preaching 
had brought him face to face with disputing Brahmans. 
Years of such practice had developed in him a rare 
power of utterance, wit, and readiness to meet emergen- 
cies, wedded to pungent, pithy expressions. Landing 
in New York in April, I808, in the flourishing period 
of the American Lyceum, he at once found himself in 
demand as a lecturer. He was familiar with India's 
religious philosophy and had spent years in studying 
the sayings of her sages. His knowledge of Sanskrit, 
Tamil,, and Telegu gave him a culture of unusual 
breadth. The message he had was fresh, vital, abound- 
ing in human interest, and brilliant with intellectual 
research. He was everywhere greeted by crowded audi- 
ences and for two years hardly a moment's rest was al- 

[239] 



Williams College and Missions 

lowed him. After six months of absolute quiet on the 
shores of Lake Geneva, he returned towards the end of 
1860 to India. It became apparent, however, to the 
mission on his return that he could not hope to work 
again in the heated climate of the plains. He accord- 
ingly removed to the Neilgherry Hills, where the cli- 
mate was milder, being stationed first in Conoor and 
then in Cotacamund. The entire time from 1860 to 
1866 he spent here in literary work, producing "The 
Bazaar Book" and other classics, and bringing out an 
"Improved Edition of Rhenius' Tamil Grammar." 

A second time the heat of the climate brought on 
serious brain disease and the physicians sent him home 
with the injunction to surrender all further thought of 
missionary service in India. Returning to this coun- 
try, he reached New York September 15, 1864, 
resigned from the Board of the Reformed Church De- 
cember 1, and accepted the pastorate of the Grand 
Street Reformed Church, Jersey City, New Jersey, De- 
cember 5 of the same year. He was soon called to a 
more important field, the Howard Presbyterian Church 
in San Francisco, and remained there from June, 1865, 
to March, 1871. Here he exerted a wide influence and 
attracted to his church men of great diversities of gifts, 
among them judges, intellectual leaders, rough miners, 
and men foremost in business. Compelled by ill 
health to resign this pastorate, he soon received calls 
to three important churches, one to a leading Presby- 
terian church in Chicago, a second to the Westminster 
Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, New York, and the 
third to the Central Congregational Church in the same 
city. He chose the last because it was the smallest. 
This pastorate, which began April 2, 1871, and lasted 
till 1882, was singularly happy and successful. The 
church grew from a membership of 350 into one of 
1350, with a large annual accession of new members. 

[240] 



Biographical Sketches 

During the summer of 1882, becoming conscious that 
the burden he was carrying was too heavy for him, he 
wisely determined to seek a new field, though his people 
would have gladly given him the help of an assistant. 
From November 19, 1882, until March 6, 1887, he was 
pastor of Plymouth Church, Chicago. His ministry 
here was attended with the same success, but after a 
period of four years and three months, was brought to 
an end by serious illness. About the time of his recov- 
ery there came word from Japan of the marvellous 
movement which seemed to promise a speedy winning 
of that empire to the Kingdom of Christ. Knowledge 
of this led Dr. and Mrs. Scudder to take up inde- 
pendent mission work in Japan, where their son and 
daughter had been engaged as missionaries since 1884. 
On their departure from San Francisco in June, 1877, 
they received a hearty Godspeed from the pastors and 
churches of California, and on their reaching Niigata, 
October 8, they with others in the party were accorded 
a most hearty reception from the members of the Pres- 
byterian and Congregational churches and the pupils of 
the boys' and girls' schools. An early letter from Dr. 
Scudder stated that he was hard at work on the lan- 
guage and had found the field intensely interesting 
4 'with prospects of glad harvest." He lectured in many 
of the institutions of Japan, where he was most cor- 
dially welcomed. During the winter of 1888-89, he 
lectured to large audiences in Tokyo, the lectures being 
six in number on the subjects, "Is there a God?" "How 
Can We Know Him?" "Mystery," and "The Super- 
natural." Deep impressions were made by the lectures, 
which were attended by from 1000 to 1500 persons. 

In October, 1889, Dr. and Mrs. Scudder, with their 
son and daughter and son's wife, returned to the United 
States and resided for about a year in Pasadena, Cali- 
fornia. The next two years were spent in Chicago, 

[241] 



Williams College and Missions 

from which place he removed to Winchester, Massachu- 
setts, where he resided till the time of his death. He 
died of apoplexy, June 4, 1895. He had been in infirm 
health since his return to this country in 1889. 

The editor of the Missionary Herald says of him: 
"He was a man of great abilities, of fine address, and 
of commanding power in the pulpit. His name and 
memory will be precious in all our American churches 
as w r ell as in many mission fields." 

His son, Dr. Doremus Scudder, writes as follows of 
his father's methods and characteristics: "While never 
a slave to system, my father was exceedingly methodical. 
From eight o'clock in the morning to twelve and from 
half past one until three or four in the afternoon, noth- 
ing was suffered to interrupt his work in his study. 
He carried on several lines of reading or investigation 
side by side, thus relieving mental strain and giving 
zest to his labors. An enthusiastic lover of language, 
he kept up Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Tamil, and San- 
skrit almost to the day of his death. More than once 
in the last two years after laying aside pastoral work 
he announced that his days of Sanskrit were over, nev- 
ertheless every now and then he would steal back to 
some beloved Hindu classic. While able to read 
French and German he never gave much attention to 
them and was not proficient in either language. He 
loved and knew his Bible in the original better than any 
active pastor of a large church I have ever met. . . . 
Dr. Scudder was master in dialectic. It is one of the 
rarest powers granted to a preacher to be able to con- 
duct an argument skilfully, honorably, triumphantly, 
and at the same time with such clarity and grace as to 
win the attention of men of the street while delighting 
the scholar. My father had this rare gift in wonderful 
measure. He had whetted his sword in thousands of per- 
sonal combats with the keenest arguers on earth — the 

[242] 



Biographical Sketches 

Brahmans of India. His sermons were all points. It 
was impossible for him to speak without saying some- 
thing. People carried away food for thought always." 

Dr. Scudder received the degree of M. D. from the 
University of New York, in 1853, and the honorary de- 
gree of Doctor of Divinity from Rutgers College in 
1859. He was a corporate member of the American 
Board from 1871. On April 4, 1903, a bronze tablet 
in his memory was unveiled in the Central Congrega- 
tional Church, Brooklyn, New York. 

He was married April 18, 1844, to Miss Fanny 
Lewis, daughter of John and Fanny (Smith) Lewis, 
and a descendant from William and Amy Lewis, who 
came from Wales to Boston in 1635. Miss Lewis was 
not only sprung from an old and honored family but 
was a lady of superior culture and refinement and pos- 
sessed of a character of uncommon sweetness. Mrs. 
Scudder survived her husband, dying in Woburn, Mas- 
sachusetts, November 30, 1900. She served the cause 
of missions in India for twenty years, and at the time 
of her death, only one name, — that of Dr. Elias Riggs, 
— preceded hers in the list of living appointees of the 
American Board. 

Of ten children born to them two, a son and daugh- 
ter, are living: Rev. Dr. Doremus Scudder, M.D., and 
Miss Caroline Scudder, who, in 1884, gave themselves 
to missionary work in Japan. More recently Dr. Do- 
remus Scudder became Secretary of the Hawaiian 
Evangelical Association, and is now pastor of the Cen- 
tral Union Church, Honolulu. 

Dr. Henry Martyn Scudder published many inter- 
esting letters from time to time in the Missionary Her- 
ald. His other publications include "Liturgy of the 
Reformed Presbyterian Dutch Church" (Madras, In- 
dia, 1862) ; "The Bazaar Book, or the Vernacular 
Teachers' Companion" (1865) ; "Sweet Savors of Di- 

[243] 



Williams College and Missions 

vine Truth, a Catechism" (1868) ; and "Spiritual 
Teaching" (1870). Besides these, which are in the 
Tamil language, he published "Coming to Christ" 
(1859); "Christ our Teacher" (1868) ; "The Sense 
of Scripture" (1868) ; "Shall we drink Wine?" (1869) ; 
"The Catholics and Public Schools" (1873) ; "Analysis 
of the Gospel of Mark" (1881); "God's Heart and 
Hand in Our National History" (1885) ; "Christ's Sec- 
ond Coming" (1887); "For You" (1890); and some 
Thanksgiving sermons. 

Eliphalet Whittlesey, son of Eliphalet and 
Martha (Strong) Whittlesey, was born in Salisbury, 
Connecticut, July 13, 1816. He fitted for college in 
Lenox Academy, and with his brother, Charles, en- 
tered Williams in 1836. He was a member of the Philo- 
technian Society. He studied theology at Union The- 
ological Seminary, where he was graduated in 1843. 
He was ordained at Salisbury, on September 27 of the 
same year, and on the 4th of December following, em- 
barked from Boston, under the auspices of the Ameri- 
can Board, for the Sandwich Islands, being one of the 
tenth reinforcement sent to that field. When four days 
out of Boston, the ship encountered a severe gale and 
suffered injuries which necessitated her being laid up 
for repairs. 

He arrived at Honolulu, July 15, 1844, and was 
located at Hana, on the island of Maui. At first he 
was associated with Mr. Conde, being engaged chiefly 
in teaching, but in 1846 an arrangement was made, in 
accordance with which he took charge of two districts, 
Kipapula and Kaupo, formerly under the care of Mr. 
Conde. Of these places Mr. Whittlesey wrote: 
"They form a very pleasant field, containing a numer- 
ous population, and being accessible on horseback. 
There were 136 church members, in regular standing, 

[ 24<4 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

who were set off as a separate church for me." In this 
new field Mr. Whittlesey used to preach every Sab- 
bath, though still residing at Hana. The following 
extract from the report which he sent to the Board in 
1848 gives some idea of the people and his work: "In 
making this, my first report, I can only state things as 
they seem, and mention what has been done during a 
single year, without instituting any comparison be- 
tween it and former years. The morals of the people 
have been good, so far as I have been made acquainted 
with them. We have enjoyed the presence of the 
Spirit, and many have been led to attend to the interests 
of their souls, some having been admitted to the visible 
church. Others, who remain apparently unconcerned, 
have doubtless been restrained in their sinful courses. 
The judge of the two districts told me that he thought 
there were fewer criminals than in former years. . . . 
In regard to education, I may say that the effect of the 
changes in the school system has been beneficial. There 
appears to be a desire on the part of the parents, as 
well as children, to obtain books; and a great many 
books have been sold, some making payment in full. 
Several globe maps have been purchased for the 
schools. In examinations the schools appear very well, 
and the teachers manifest an ambition to urge on their 
pupils in the acquisition of knowledge." 

Mr. Whittlesey's term of service in the Islands 
closed in 1854, when he returned to the United States. 
During 1854-55 and again 1857-61 he resided at Salis- 
bury, Connecticut, without charge. He acted as occa- 
sional supply in Saratoga, New York, 1855-57; Ham- 
monton, New Jersey, 1881-65; Elwood, New Jersey, 
1865-67; Edina, Missouri, 1867-69; and again in El- 
wood from 1869 till his death. He died of marasmus 
at Elwood, September 1, 1889, aged 73 years. 

He married November 16, 1843, Elizabeth Keene 

[245 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

Baldwin, daughter of Rev. Burr and Cornelia (Keene) 
Baldwin of Newark, New Jersey, and formerly of 
Montrose, Pennsylvania. She was educated at Mount 
Holyoke Seminary. She survived her husband and 
in 1900 was residing in Hammonton, New Jersey. 
Theodore Holden, of Elmwood, New Jersey, was an 
adopted son. 

It is said that in later years Mr. Whittlesey be- 
came a believer in New Church doctrines and withdrew 
from the Congregational Association. "He was a 
man of gentleness and an honored citizen." 



CLASS OF 1841 

James Herrick, son of Nathaniel and Lydia 
(Eastman) Herrick, was born March 19, 1814, in 
Broome, Canada, where his parents were residing tem- 
porarily, their home being in Dummerston, Vermont. 
He was the grandson of Jonathan and Mehetabel 
(French) Herrick. 

The family is an ancient one, tradition claiming 
its descent from Eric Ericke, a Danish chief who in- 
vaded Britain in the reign of Alfred. The emigrant 
ancestor in this country is supposed to be Henry, son 
of Sir William and Joan (May) Herrick, and who 
was born at Beau Manor, County of Leicester, Eng- 
land, in 1604. His name was sometimes written Hen- 
erie Hireck, Hericke, or Herrick. According to one 
account he settled in Salem, and according to another, 
in Beverly, Massachusetts. In a recent sketch of his 
life it is stated that "Mr. Herrick and his wife Editha 
were among the thirty who founded the first church in 
Salem, in 1639; and on the organization of the new 
parish, on 'Ryal-Syde,' in 1667, they with their sons 
and their sons' wives were among the founders of the 
first church in Beverly, also." He married a daughter 

[246] 



Biographical Sketches 

of Hugh Larkin of Salem, and there are said to have 
been born to them twelve sons and several daughters. 
He was a farmer in comfortable circumstances, but not 
distinguished by civil rank or influence in the Colony. 
"He was a very good and honest dissenter from the 
established church and the friend of Higginson, who 
had been a dissenting minister in Leicester." 

Robert Herrick, the poet, is named as one of the 
more distinguished English ancestors of the American 
family. 

The father of James Herrick was a farmer, and 
the son, besides having the good fortune of being reared 
on a farm, was blessed with the influences of a God- 
fearing, Christian mother. He received the beginning 
of his education in West Brattleboro, Vermont, to which 
place the family removed after the temporary residence 
in Canada. His later childhood was spent in New- 
fane and West Dummerston. He prepared for col- 
lege at the academy in West Brattleboro, some of the 
time boarding two miles away. He paid his way in the 
academy by teaching a district school. Rev. Mr. 
Grout, who knew him well, wrote of him: "He was 
eminently diligent, faithful, successful in all his stud- 
ies, and was noted for his regular, punctual attendance 
upon every recitation and other engagement or duty." 
While he was in the academy, at the age of twenty, he 
united with the Congregational church, on confession 
of his faith. He entered college in 1837, coming over 
the mountain from Windham County, Vermont, by pri- 
vate conveyance, to be examined for admission. This 
was the second year of President Mark Hopkins' ad- 
ministration. The college then had but six professors, 
about 150 students, and only four buildings. To save 
money, young Herrick used to walk to college and back 
from his home in Dummerston, between terms, and to 
earn money used to teach a part of the winters and work 

[247] 



Williams College and Missions 

on the farm summers. In College he was a member of 
the Philotechnian Society and of the Mills Theological 
Society. He was one of the speakers at the Com- 
mencement, August 18, 1841, the subject of his oration 
being "National Recognition of the Divine Sovereignty 
necessary to National Prosperity." After gradua- 
tion, he taught for a year in the academy at West 
Brattleboro. He studied theology at Andover Sem- 
inary, at which he was graduated in 1845, and was 
ordained October 8 of the same year. In his course of 
study at the seminary he had steadily looked forward 
to foreign mission work, to which he had consecrated 
himself. 

On November 12 of the same year he, with his young 
wife, sailed from Boston for India as a missionary of 
the American Board, arriving at Madura, April 30, 
1846. He was at first stationed at Tirumangalam, 
twelve miles southwest of Madura, and here, with the 
exception of four years at Pasumalai and two years in 
this country, he and his wife were devoted missionaries 
for nearly forty years. The station had been for 
about a year under the care of Rev. William Tracy, 
who was for a time a member of the class of 1833 at 
this college, and who subsequently received here his 
honorary degree. Whether the ties of college kinship 
prepared the way or not, the new laborers began their 
work under most favorable auspices. "The reception 
we met on our first arrival, " writes Mr. Herrick, "was 
very gratifying. The members of the boarding-school, 
from thirty-five to forty in number, met us at our door, 
telling us that since the removal of Dr. Tracy they had 
been orphans, and requested that we should be parents 
to them. Several persons soon came in from the vil- 
lage to make their "salam" and request our kindness. 
I might here mention that the boys of the boarding- 
school have uniformly shown us the respect due to 

[248] 



Biographical Sketches 

parents, and that they place, apparently, much more 
confidence in their adopted than in their natural par- 
ents; a circumstance which renders these schools of im- 
mense importance." This kindly welcome was an omen 
of good success which was apparent from the first, and 
which was constant during the long period of service of 
these missionaries. Mr. Herrick laid great emphasis 
upon preaching the Word, but with this he combined 
unwearied efforts with individuals. One of his aims, 
also, was to encourage giving among the native Chris- 
tians and the establishment of self-supporting churches. 
It is said that the first village church that was regularly 
organized in the Madura Mission was formed in his 
field, and the first village pastor was ordained there. 
He was fond of itinerating and did faithful work in all 
parts of the district coming under his care. In one of 
his tours he writes of visiting 145 villages, and again 
he visits 140 villages. In these tours he sometimes took 
with him a tent in which he could gather his congrega- 
tions. Frequent topics in his letters are revivals, bap- 
tisms, accessions to the church, new buildings. In 
April, 1871, he writes of the progress made in a 
quarter of a century. "When I took charge of the 
station, in May, 1846," he writes, "there were but ten 
or twelve church members there; and all but two of 
them were helpers, introduced from other missions, and 
members of their families. Now there are 150 church 
members in good standing, connected with two churches, 
one of which is under the care of a native pastor, 
who derives more than half of his support from the 
members of his church and congregation. Then there 
was but a single congregation of Christians in the vil- 
lages, and this was subsequently transferred to another 
mission. Now there are more than twenty congrega- 
tions, composed of persons living in forty different vil- 
lages, and containing in all nearly 1000 members. Then, 

[249] 



Williams College and Missions 

all the schools, except the boarding-school, were taught 
by heathen masters, there being no others available. 
Now, all the teachers employed are Christians, nomi- 
nally, and all but one church members. Seventeen men, 
now employed as helpers at this station, and three em- 
ployed elsewhere, are natives of this station district, and 
have all been introduced into service during the period 
under review. Thirteen girls sent from here to the fe- 
male boarding-school in Madura within this time are 
now wives of men who have been, and all but one or two 
of whom are now employed as mission helpers. Two 
are the wives of pastors." 

And this progress continued. When, twelve years 
later, he finally withdrew from active service, he again 
gave a review of what he had seen accomplished, show- 
ing that while in 1845 there was probably one church in 
each of the seven stations, in 1882 the number of 
churches was thirty-four and the number of church 
members 2888; and that while in 1845 the number of 
"Christian villages" or " village congregations" was 
forty-four, and of people in them 1081, in 1882 the 
congregations had increased to 255 with a membership 
of 11,629, living in 373 different villages. 

The success which attended his labors during the 
four years when he was in charge of the seminary at 
Pasumalai shows what he might have accomplished had 
he devoted his life exclusively to educational affairs. 

In 1883, Mr. and Mrs. Herrick again visited the 
United States, not to return again to their mission. It 
was a great sorrow to Mr. Herrick that he was pre- 
vented by physical infirmities from spending his last 
years in the work to which he had been devoted, and 
among the people whom he loved and who loved him. 
He spent these last years at Brattleboro, Vermont, 
which had been the home of his youth. And these last 
years were filled with useful work. He was faithful in 

[250] 



Biographical Sketches 

his attendance upon the various services of the Sabbath 
and aided in these services as he had opportunity. 
Through the week he did much pastoral work, visiting 
the sick, the aged, desolate, and the afflicted. He corre- 
sponded with Christian workers, and gave wise counsel 
for the welfare of the church and community, in which 
he lived a holy and exemplary life. "One would search 
far to find a better illustration among men of what it 
is to follow the Lord with singleness of heart in all 
Christian life." 

In the summer before his death he enjoyed the rare 
privilege of attending the fiftieth anniversary meeting 
of his class, when there were present five of the ten liv- 
ing members of a class of thirty-two. He had acted as 
Class Secretary in gathering these few classmates, and 
on his return to his home he wrote the Secretary of the 
Alumni an account of his impressions under the title of 
"Then and Now," recounting some of the more impor- 
tant changes that had occurred in the college in the half- 
century gone. 

He died of heart disease in West Brattleboro, No- 
vember 30, 1891. 

Prominent among the fine qualities of Mr. Her- 
rick's character were a nice sense of justice, a conscien- 
tiousness that extended to little things, and a gentleness 
that showed itself in speech and manner. He ever tried 
to follow the Old Testament requirement to do justly, 
to love mercy, to walk humbly with God. The distin- 
guishing features of his character were Christian faith, 
love, sincerity, and fidelity. 

The Rev. John E. Chandler, who went to India the 
year after Mr. and Mrs. Herrick did, and who was inti- 
mately associated with them in the Madura Mission, 
writes as follows of his associate and friend: "It was 
my privilege to labor side by side in the same mission 
field for more than thirty years, and when declining 

[251] 



Williams College and Missions 

health compelled him to give up the work and remain 
in this country his loss was deeply regretted by all his 
associates, as well as by the natives who knew him. He 
was held in high esteem by a large circle of acquaint- 
ances. He was a man eminent for his piety and godli- 
ness, a man of prayer. I remember how impressively 
he said in one of the last prayer meetings at which he 
was present: 'I sometimes, dear brethren, fear that we 
do not spend time enough in our private devotions and 
in reading our Bibles.' He loved to pray and always 
evinced the greatest sincerity, living as he prayed. He 
was an affectionate, loving friend. The warm grasp of 
his hand indicated the feeling of his heart." 

Mr. Herrick married in West Brattleboro, Ver- 
mont, November 2, 184*5, Miss Elizabeth Hopkins 
Crosby, daughter of Thomas and Catherine (Burt) 
Crosby, and a descendant of William Brewster, who 
came from England to this country on the Mayflower. 

Of the ten children born to them, five are living: 
Mrs. Mary E. Dunklee, Brattleboro, Vermont; Rev. 
William H. Herrick, missionary under the Presbyte- 
rian Board of Publication and Sunday-school Work, 
Green River, Utah; Mrs. Emily H. Martin, Lexing- 
ton, Massachusetts; Joseph T. HerricK, M.D., Univer- 
sity Medical School, New York City; Rev. David 
Scudder Herrick (Williams 1885), missionary in Ma- 
dura, Southern India. Another son, who died in 1893, 
James Frederick Herrick, was graduated here in 1875, 
was for several years on the staff of the Springfield Re- 
publican, and was later connected with the New York 
World. A son of this son bearing the name of his 
father is a member of the class of 1914 in Williams 
College. 

Mrs. James Herrick died in West Brattleboro, Sep- 
tember 23, 1900. 

[252] 



Biographical Sketches 

CLASS OF 1842 

Henry Alexander Ford, son of Rev. Henry Ford 
of Lisle, New York, was born May 4, 1818. He en- 
tered college as a Sophomore in 1839, having among his 
classmates Addison Ballard, Horace Lyman, D wight 
Whitney Marsh, and Edward Taylor. A brother, 
Jonathan Ford, was graduated here in 1839. After 
graduation, he taught for four or five years in Hud- 
son, New York, and then studied medicine in New 
York City, with the view of becoming a medical 
missionary. 

On June 20, 1850, he sailed from New York, under 
the appointment of the American Board, to join the 
mission at Gaboon, in West Africa, arriving there 
October 7. Rev. Dr. Addison Ballard, Dr. Ford's sole 
surviving classmate, writes: "It sufficiently attests his 
genuine martyr heroism that he went as missionary 
to the Gaboon, of which it used to be said that 
for every native convert there was to be seen 
the grave of a missionary." Dr. Ford's first 
letter from his field naturally had reference to 
the climate, of which he writes: "1. Here we 
have a rainy season of about seven months, including a 
month called 'the middle dries,' when the showers are 
less frequent. This is also our warm season, the ther- 
mometer ranging from seventy-two to eighty-eight de- 
grees of Fahrenheit. But on the north coast, the rainy 
season is the cold season; and on this account it is 
thought by immigrants to be less healthful. 2. Our 
rains are generally in the night, so that one is in but lit- 
tle danger of getting wet in the daytime. On other 
parts of the coast, however, the days and nights are 
alike wet. 

"3. At the close of our rainy season, the sky be- 
comes overcast with clouds, and the thermometer falls 
from seven to ten degrees; a change which would be 

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Williams College and Missions 

hardly perceptible in the United States, but which is 
very apparent to the keener susceptibilities of a resident 
in Africa. By this means the disastrous effects of a 
burning sun, operating upon the luxuriant vegetation 
of the rainy season, are entirely obviated. Thus we are 
rid of the season that is thought to be most dangerous 
to health in hot climates. The experience of whites on 
the Gaboon proves that this transition period is as 
healthful as any in the year." This first impression 
about the favorableness of the climate, however, had to 
be modified by larger experience. 

Dr. Ford was stationed as physician at Baraka, 
where John Leighton Wilson was missionary. At a 
neighboring station of the Gaboon, at the same time, 
was Jacob Best (Williams 1844) , who had been for two 
years a college mate of Dr. Ford. 

Dr. Ford's time was not devoted entirely to the 
practice of medicine ; he held a Sunday-school, and also 
had superintendence of a boarding day school for boys, 
containing on an average about thirty-five scholars, 
many of whom manifested a strong desire for improve- 
ment and made good progress in study. 

In 1855 Dr. Ford visited this country on account of 
his wife's health. While here he attended a special 
meeting of the Board at Albany, New York, March 4, 
1856. The following summer he sailed from Stoning- 
ton, Connecticut, to join his missionary brethren in 
West Africa, Mrs. Ford intending to remain for a time 
in this country. He labored with great fidelity for some- 
thing over a year, till the time of his death from fever, at 
Baraka, February 2, 1858. His death was the more 
startling because he was a strong man and had gener- 
ally enjoyed good health. He was constant in his at- 
tendance upon the sick, by day and by night, and seldom 
spoke of himself as being unwell. But a few days before 
his death he had been complimented by a physician on 

[254] 



Biographical Sketches 

his enjoyment of so good health in Africa. Mr. Pierce, 
who gave an account of his death, wrote: "Yet he was 
probably, at times, unwell, and ought to have taken his 
bed, when, instead, he would take quinine and keep 
about his work. He was made of energy and resolution, 
did what he found to do with all his might, and labored 
incessantly. He did too much and felt, on his dying bed, 
that he had not taken such care of himself as was really 
needful.' , 

There was a large attendance at his funeral, Mr. 
Walker speaking in Mpongwe and Mr. Best, his col- 
lege mate, in English. 

Dr. Ford married in 1855 Miss Olivia Smith of Os- 
wego, New York, who embarked unmarried from New 
York, November 30, 1853, and arrived at Gaboon Feb- 
ruary 16, 1854. She survived her husband. 

Dwight Whitney Marsh, son of Henry and Sa- 
rah (Whitney) Marsh, was born in Dalton, Massachu- 
setts, November 5, 1823. His grandparents on his 
father's side were Henry and Betsey (Lawrence) 
Marsh, and on his mother's side, Abel and Elizabeth 
(Dwight) Whitney. 

The family, which is an illustrious one, traces its 
descent from John Marsh, who came from England to 
America in 1636 and settled in Hartford, Connecticut. 
Among the noted descendants of John Marsh may be 
mentioned Joseph Marsh, a Colonel in the Revolution- 
ary War and the first Lieutenant-Governor of Ver- 
mont ; Colonel Ebenezer Marsh, who led a Connecticut 
regiment to Ticonderoga, one of whose great-grandsons 
was Governor Horatio Seymour of New York; Doc- 
tors Jonathan and Perez Marsh, who were surgeons 
in the French War of 1755; and Hon. George P. 
Marsh, Minister to Constantinople and to Italy. 
Henry Marsh, who was graduated here in 1815, and 

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Williams College and Missions 

obtained distinction as a lawyer, manufacturer, and 
merchant, was of this family. 

The good old Puritan stock from which Dwight 
Whitney Marsh was descended was eminent in other 
lines of descent also and included such names as Ed- 
wards, Stoddard, Lawrence, Williams, and Dwight. 
His mother was a sister of Josiah Dwight Whitney, and 
thus he was first cousin to Josiah Dwight Whitney, Jr., 
and William Dwight Whitney (Williams 1845). 

His father, Henry Marsh, who was a farmer and 
manufacturer, is spoken of as an eloquent speaker, and 
an enthusiastic, active Christian. The boy was sent 
from home to school at an early age, first to the Berk- 
shire Gymnasium at Pittsfield, which was under the 
charge of Dr. Chester Dewey (Williams 1806), who 
had been an eminent professor of mathematics for some 
years in his Alma Mater. He next studied at Lenox 
Academy, and later, for a short time, at Hopkins Acad- 
emy, in Hadley, Massachusetts, the principal of which 
was Rev. Dan Huntington (Yale 1794), who had been 
a tutor both at Williams and at Yale, and had received 
an honorary degree from Williams in 1798. Marsh 
entered college as a Freshman, in 1838, and though at 
that time he was under fifteen years of age, he soon 
took good rank as a scholar, being particularly fond of 
natural history. With his cousin, William Dwight 
Whitney, who was for a time his college mate, he made 
many excursions in field and wood, in search for speci- 
mens with which to enrich the college collection. One 
who knew him well describes him as he was in his college 
days, as "a tall, slender, bright-eyed, and bright-looking 
young man." Rev. Dr. Ballard, one of his classmates 
to attain distinction, and now the only surviving mem- 
ber of his class, writes these words of reminiscence: "I 
think of Marsh as one of the most amiable and trans- 
parently sincere men of my class. . . . He was es- 

[256] 



Biographical Sketches 

teemed for his character as a companion, a friend, and 
a devoted Christian." He was a member of the Philo- 
logian Society. He was one of the speakers at the 
Junior Exhibition, his subject being, "American Scen- 
ery." He also delivered an oration at Commencement 
on the subject, "Psyche." 

On graduation, he was urged by his father to study 
law, but his early conversion and the religious influences 
of the college turned him to the ministry. In 1842 he 
entered Andover Theological Seminary, but his course 
here was interrupted, after a year, by financial reverses 
which caused the removal of the family to the West. 
After teaching four years at St. Louis, he completed his 
course in theology at Union Seminary, from which he 
was graduated in 1849. It was while a member of the 
seminary, where there were twenty-six of his fellows 
who were expecting to become foreign missionaries, that 
he came to a decision to be a missionary to the heathen. 
Being accepted by the American Board in 1849, he was 
ordained in Dalton, Massachusetts, on October 2 of that 
year, by the Berkshire Association, in the church where 
he was baptized and of which he was a member. On 
December 7, he sailed from Boston for Mosul, Turkey, 
where he arrived March 29, 1850, going by the way of 
Diarbekir, from which place he floated down the Tigris 
to his new home, on a raft supported by inflated goat- 
skins. He enjoyed to the full the beauties of the scen- 
ery and any places of historic interest through which 
he passed, and wrote of these things in a vivid and inter- 
esting way. The following extract from a letter writ- 
ten February 25, 1851, gives some idea of the field he 
was called to occupy: "This field I regard as extending 
from Mardin to Bagdad. There are two nations to be 
wrought upon, the Syrian and Chaldean. The Syrians 
are in part Jacobites, while some of them have left the 
Jacobite Church for popery. The Chaldeans, in like 

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Williams College and Missions 

manner, are partly Nestorians, or Protestant Chal- 
deans, and partly papists or Chaldeans, so called. 
There are four sects, therefore, Nestorians, Chaldeans, 
Jacobites, and Syrians. In both instances the crafty 
papists have seized upon the national name, and left the 
name of a sect to their adversaries I 

"I am more and more convinced of the importance 
of Mosul as a missionary post." 

For a year he was the only missionary at Mosul. 
The year 1851 was made memorable by the visit to 
Mosul of Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon and his son, whom 
Mr. Marsh accompanied through the mountains of 
Kurdistan on a journey to Persia. The story of the 
party's being detained in a Kurdish castle, and being 
not only robbed but threatened with death by an armed 
band, is described in the Missionary Herald for 1851, 
and forms one of the most thrilling incidents in the an- 
nals of missionary life. 

In 1852 Mr, Marsh returned to America, where he 
delivered many missionary addresses, and on October 
19, 1852, was married in New York to Julia White 
Peck, daughter of Elisha and Mary Jane (Averill) 
Peck, of Hartford and New York. On January 7, 
1853, they sailed for Turkey and arrived at Mosul 
the 9th of May following. The following extract from 
a letter describes the mode of travel on the Tigris: 
"We had two rafts, of sixty-four inflated goat skins 
each, about twenty feet long and ten wide. On our 
raft we had a little house, about ten feet long, eight 
wide and seven high, so admirably arranged with cur- 
tains to shut off the rain, sun or wind, and to admit 
pleasant breezes, if we wished, that together with our cot 
bedsteads and trunks, and with travelling cooking fur- 
niture on the raft of our servants, we came down more 
comfortably than we should have been on many a 
crowded Hudson River steamer. Sometimes the waves 

[258] 



Biographical Sketches 

and whirls boiled all around us in the rapids, and at 
times the mighty eddies held us irresistibly; but though 
once or twice the waves dashed upon our feet, our sixty- 
four life-preservers, and the better care of God, would 
not let us sink. We had the invaluable aid of Khuther, 
the servant who was so long with Dr. Bacon and his 
son, and who was with us when we were robbed." With 
still greater vividness, perhaps, does he describe the 
wild scenery through which he passed on the journey he 
made to Urumia, in 1850, now and then contrasting 
what he saw with "the grand scenery of the Catskill and 
the Green Mountains," and, at times, reminded of the 
valleys of his native Berkshire and of his "later home 
beyond the lakes and prairies." 

In Mosul were spent seven years in earnest work 
for the people of that city and the surrounding districts. 
An experience of no ordinary interest in these years 
was Mr. Marsh's acquaintance with Layard and his as- 
sistants, who were then carrying on their excavations 
at Ximroud, not many miles from Mosul. It was about 
this time that Mr. Marsh sent to his Alma Mater some 
Nineveh slabs which Layard had courteously given him, 
believed to be the first specimens of this sort to be sent 
to any American college. 

In May, 1859, the home of Mr. and Mrs. Marsh was 
saddened by the death of their second and only sur- 
viving child, and on the 12th of August following, Mrs. 
Marsh died of fever, at the age of 32. She is de- 
scribed as a noble and lovely character, and as an 
earnest and faithful laborer. While Mosul was re- 
garded as free from malaria, the summer heat was par- 
ticularly exhausting to foreigners. It is related that 
for eighty days in one year the thermometer ranged 
from 100° to 114°, and during one of the days of Mrs. 
Marsh's illness the thermometer recorded 120°. The 
mother and only sister of Mrs. Marsh died under the 

[259] 



Williams College and Missions 

age of thirty, and it may be Mrs. Marsh might have 
lived no longer in her native land. But her husband, in 
giving an account of her death, wrote, "Yet it is prob- 
able the heat, so unusually extreme, cutting the leaves 
from the tree in our court by thousands, and causing 
many natives of the country to fall dead by the road- 
side, was the immediate occasion of her death." 

In 1860 Mr. Marsh returned to America, fully in- 
tending to go back after a while to spend the rest of his 
life in work for the people of Turkey. Circumstances 
connected with his father's family, however, made it 
seem his duty to remain here, though he was devoted 
to the mission work, and was greatly beloved by the 
people. On resigning his connection with the Board, 
he wrote Dr. Anderson, "It is hard for me to give up 
my hopes of usefulness as a missionary, but I shall 
never forget the oriental churches and Moslems." 

He now supplied, for a year, the Congregational 
Church in Hinsdale, Massachusetts, near to the town of 
his birthplace, after which he spent five years in teach- 
ing in a young ladies' seminary in Rochester, New 
York, at the same time preaching frequently in the dif- 
ferent churches of the city and in neighboring towns. 
Though highly successful as a teacher, he felt that 
preaching ought to be his life work. After being the 
pastor of a church for a year in Godfrey, Illinois, and 
spending another year in teaching in Rochester, he be- 
came pastor at Whitney's Point, New York, 1869-71, 
and Owego, New York, for five years, 1871-76. In this 
latter year he removed to Amherst, Massachusetts, 
where he was in the midst of a large circle of friends, 
and where, for two years and a half, he was pastor of 
the North Church. After a pastorate of about four 
years at Haydenville, Massachusetts, he returned in 
1882 to Amherst, which he made his home till his death, 
which occurred June 18, 1896. 

[260] 



Biographical Sketches 

Dr. Marsh's life was a busy one. Even during the 
years of retirement he was busy, preaching occasionally, 
writing often for the daily press, preparing papers and 
reports for the Ministerial Association of the county, 
the fortnightly ministers' meeting, and the Roundabout 
Club of Amherst, or engaged in other forms of literary 
work. He was a scholar of wide research, one of his 
favorite studies being that of philosophy. For many 
years he was a member of the American Oriental So- 
ciety. His Alma Mater recognized his attainments in 
bestowing upon him in 1875 the degree of Doctor of 
Divinity. Dr. Marsh had a large capacity for friend- 
ship, and was always a charming companion. He had 
a keen sense of humor, and, because his heart was ever 
young, he was a favorite with children and young peo- 
ple. But it was in his home life where were revealed 
to their fullest extent the beauty of his character and 
the charm of his disposition. He always retained a 
strong attachment for his college and often spoke of his 
obligations to Mark and Albert Hopkins, who in his 
college years were just entering upon their career of 
wide influence. 

At the Commencement in 1892 he met with the 
other six surviving members of his class for their fifty- 
year jubilee, and was again present at the Centennial 
Celebration of the college in 1893. 

His death called forth abundant and worthy trib- 
utes from classmates and other friends. The first three 
of the following extracts are from tributes of class- 
mates. Rev. Dr. Edward Taylor wrote: "Dr. Marsh 
had versatility of talent. No matter what was the mat- 
ter in hand, he met it fully, not only doing his own work 
well, but inspiring the rest of us to do our work well. 
He was broad in the brain and broad in the heart, and 
his sermons satisfied the intellect and warmed the heart. 
His diction was refined, classic, pure, and simple." 

[261] 



Williams College and Missions 

William Henry Edwards wrote: "Dwight and I were 
close friends in college. We both became interested at 
the same time in collecting birds, and in mounting them, 
taking our first lessons from Professor Albert Hop- 
kins; and as we both had the naturalist's temperament, 
we experienced ever-increasing satisfaction and delight 
as the months went on. ... So it was that Dwight and 
I saw much of each other. He was always amiable and 
lovable. I never saw or heard anything from him that 
was not good and lovely. In thought, word, and deed 
he was as perfect as mortal may be." The following is 
from Rev. Dr. Addison Ballard: "The things about him 
which, at this distance of time, stand out clearly before 
me are his youthfulness, his playfulness joined with 
manly earnestness, his genial and affectionate disposi- 
tion, his freedom from the narrowness of any merely 
personal ambition, and the transparent simplicity, sin- 
cerity, and genuineness of his character as a student, a 
friend, and a Christian." 

Rev. Dr. Henry M. Field, who was graduated the 
year young Marsh entered college, but who knew him 
intimately when both lived in St. Louis, wrote: "I can 
see him now as he looked when he first came to bring me 
a letter of introduction. I took to him at once; it was 
love at first sight. He was as modest as a young girl. 
It was easy to see that he had come out of one of the best 
New England homes. He was just the companion I 
needed. From that time we were almost daily together, 
we had so many things in common, such as the associa- 
tion of college life, — from which he had come unspoiled, 
free from the petty conceit and vanity that crop out 
in many a young student in an air of self-importance 
and of knowing everything. We were but too con- 
scious of our own ignorance, and when we turned from 
the past to the future, and talked of what we were to be 
and to do, an older head would have smiled to see that 

[262] 



Biographical Sketches 

we were as ignorant of the world as two babes in a 
wood. But what did it matter, when we stood on the 
same level, and neither was old enough or wise enough 
to despise his brother? — for brothers we were for two 
years. And now, as I look back over half a century, I 
cannot recall one unkind word, or even a look, that gave 
silent token that we were growing indifferent, a little 
more formal in our manner, as if our hearts were a little 
colder. He was always the same, so gentle and affec- 
tionate that the very memory of him is like a gleam of 
light out of the west, that shows where the sun has gone 
down. Such friendships do not die, though the loved 
ones do ; and what my earliest friend was to me he will 
continue to be, in my memory and my heart, till we meet 
beyond the river." 

From the memorial address delivered by Rev. Oli- 
ver Huckel, pastor of the First Church of Amherst, is 
taken the following extract: "The richness and strength 
of his faith was a constant inspiration to all who knew 
him. It was so simple, so unswerving, so exultant, so 
really jubilant. He believed God with all his heart; he 
accepted God at his word in his promises; he rejoiced 
in God with a great joy. He felt the hand of God in 
all the leading of his life and work. He used to talk 
about this with a delightful simplicity and a most rev- 
erent humility. The sweetness and strength of his 
spirit were a blessing to all of us who learned to see 
something of his heart. 

"He had that rare combination — the simplicity and 
guilelessness of the heart of a child united with that 
keenness and strength of intellect of a wise, and broad, 
and manly thinker. He seemed to illustrate in his own 
self most perfectly the words of the apostle, 'in malice, 
children, but in understanding, men.' " 

Dr. Marsh was twice married, his second wife, whom 
he married at Rochester, New York, August 21, 1862, 

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Williams College and Missions 

being Elizabeth LeBaron Clark, daughter of Rev. Eber 
Liscom Clark (Williams 1811) and Sarah (Law- 
rence) Clark. Mrs. Marsh is descended from Lawyer 
Daniel Clarke, who came to Windsor, Connecticut, in 
1639, with his uncle, Rev. Ephraim Huit. She also has 
a double descent from the Mayflower, through Gov- 
ernor William Bradford and Richard Warren. Her 
LeBaron ancestor was a surgeon on a French privateer 
that was captured in Buzzard's Bay in 1694. 

Mrs. Marsh published a fitting memorial of her hus- 
band in a booklet, which contains abundant extracts 
from his letters and various tributes from friends, from 
which tributes the extracts given above were taken. 

Mrs. Marsh resides in Amherst, Massachusetts. 

Of five children born to Mr. Marsh, two daughters 
by the first marriage died young. Of three sons by the 
second marriage, one is living, William Dwight Marsh, 
who is an evangelist, and resides at Schroon Lake, New 
York. 

Besides various letters from the mission field pub- 
lished in the Missionary Herald, and various communi- 
cations to the daily press, Dr. Marsh published: "A 
Sermon before the Assyrian Mission"; "The Tenne- 
sean in Persia, — a Memoir of Rev. Samuel Aud- 
ley Rhea" (1868) ; "Half Century Memorial Sermon" 
(North Amherst, 1876) ; "The Genealogy of John 
Marsh of Hartford, 1636, 1895." 

He also brought out for Colonel L. B. Marsh of 
Boston the "History of John Marsh of Salem, 1633." 



CLASS OF 1843 

William Austin Benton, second son of Deacon 
Azariah H. and Presendia (Ladd) Benton, was born 
in Tolland, Connecticut, October 11, 1818. His grand- 
parents were Jacob and Sarah (Ladd) Benton, and 

[ 264 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

Elias and Susalla (Lathrop) Ladd. Jacob Benton 
was a soldier in the War of the Revolution. The 
immigrant ancestor, Andrew Benton, came from Eng- 
land, and in 1639 resided as a planter in Milford, Con- 
necticut. He lived the last of his life at Hartford, 
Connecticut. The name is of Norman origin, being 
originally de Beynton and then de Benton. The fam- 
ily can be traced back to about 1200, and Burke calls 
it "one of the most ancient and honorable of the great 
families of Commoners in England." 

The father of the subject of this sketch was a farmer 
and a man of influence in Tolland, where he was a dea- 
con in the Congregational Church. 

The son made a profession of religion in December, 
1831. He entered Williams as a Freshman in 1839, 
but after remaining two years finished his course at 
Yale, where he was graduated in 1843. At Williams 
he became a member of the Philologian Society and of 
the Mills Theological Society. 

The first year after graduation was occupied in 
teaching in Fairfield and in Willimantic, Connecticut. 
He studied theology at East Windsor Seminary, from 
which he was graduated in 1846. He was ordained at 
Tolland, May 18, 1847, and on the 23d of the follow- 
ing month, embarked with his wife from Boston 
for Smyrna, under appointment of the American 
Board to go to Beirut. He arrived at Smyrna August 
24, and at Beirut October 20. Here he spent the win- 
ter studying the Arabic language, and in the following 
spring he and Rev. J. E. Ford (Williams 1844), with 
their wives, removed to Aleppo, to occupy it as a per- 
manent station, arriving there April 19, 1848. At that 
time there were in Aleppo 20,000 Christians, divided 
into various nations, languages, and sects, and compris- 
ing about a fourth of the whole population. The prin- 
cipal sect was the Greek Catholics, besides whom there 

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Williams College and Missions 

were Greeks, Maronites, Syrians, and Armenians. The 
most prevalent language was the Arabic, though the 
Turkish was extensively spoken. At the close of the 
first year, Messrs. Benton and Ford reported the com- 
mencing of an Arabic service and the opening of the 
school, both of which were temporarily interfered with 
by the cholera and by opposition of the priesthood. 
During the year, however, more than 1000 of the pub- 
lications of the mission, including the Scriptures, were 
distributed among the people. 

Mr. Benton continued at Aleppo till February, 
1851, when, on account of the failure of his health, he 
returned with his family to Beirut, and subsequently 
to the United States, arriving in New York on Septem- 
ber 18 of that year. On the recovery of his health, he 
reembarked at Boston, January 7, 1853, and arrived 
at Beirut February 26, and on April 19 of the same 
year went to Mount Lebanon and opened a station at 
Bhamdun. In a letter published in his class report, Mr. 
Benton, in speaking of the new station, says : "We have 
since resided here, with the exception of the following, 
and the last winters, and our hope is to gather an evan- 
gelical church, and train its members in the Christian 
warfare, on earth, and for the brighter, endless fellow- 
ship of the skies." The first of the winters referred to 
was spent in Aleppo, where he went to supply the tem- 
porary absence of Mr. Ford, who had been called for 
a season to assist in the seminary at Abeih. While at 
Aleppo, Mr. Benton wrote to the Missionary Herald a 
letter in which he gave an account of the great changes 
which had taken place in civil, social, moral, and reli- 
gious points of view since the opening of the station 
there five years before. In the same period, there had 
been established between Aleppo and the Nestorians 
three new stations, Aintab, Diarbekir, and Mosul, — all 
having organized churches. 

[266] 



Biographical Sketches 

The field, of which Bhamdun was the station, had a 
population of about 40,000, consisting of Greeks, Mar- 
onites, and Druzes. Of this village, Mr. Benton gave 
the following description: "Bhamdun is beautiful for 
situation, and of delightful climate. It commands an 
extensive prospect of the Mediterranean, which forms 
not less than a third part of the boundary of its visible 
horizon, and is about 3600 feet below; of Beirut, with 
its gardens, about twelve miles distant ; and also, at this 
season, of Cyprus, nearly 100 miles distant, when be- 
hind its mountains the sun sinks into the sea. Immedi- 
ately around us, on these goodly mountains, and in the 
valleys, are thousands of vineyards, orchards, and gar- 
dens, covering all their sides, and crowning their sum- 
mit with the choicest foliage and fruits. The climate is 
more uniform, and of a more agreeable temperature, 
than that of ]S T ew England." Mr. Benton remained 
here six years and met with signal success. In 1856 he 
reported that besides the carrying on of Bible classes 
for both sexes, Sabbath-schools and preaching services, 
there had been in successful operation through the year 
ten schools in as many different villages, with more than 
450 pupils. There was also a successful girls' school at 
Bhamdun. Access to the people had been gained and 
much good accomplished by advice and relief given in 
times of sickness. An attempt to open a station at Zah- 
leh, which at first seemed an attractive field, had to be 
abandoned, for the time, on account of the violent op- 
position which had been inspired by the Greek Catholic 
Bishop and his priests. The difficulties were speedily 
settled, however, by a visit to Syria of Hon. James Wil- 
liams, United States Ambassador at Constantinople. 

Mr. and Mrs. Benton were released from service 
June 17, 1859, but continued to reside at Bhamdun till 
June 18, 1861, when their connection with the Board 
was finally dissolved. From this time till 1869, the year 

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Williams College and Missions 

of his return to the United States, Mr. Benton was in 
the employ of the Scotch Board. 

The remaining years of his life were spent in 
America. He died very suddenly in Barre, Massa- 
chusetts, August 23, 1874, and was buried in Tolland, 
Connecticut. 

The following account of Mr. Benton's missionary 
life is furnished by one of the sons: "My father had 
charge, during his mission work in Syria, of about 
twenty-five or thirty schools, scattered all over the Leb- 
anon. Twice I accompanied him in his round of visits 
to these schools. He had so gained the regard of all 
classes and sects that when the war of 1860 broke out 
between the Druzes and Maronites in the Lebanon, 
the Druze chiefs promised to protect him and with him 
his whole parish, which was the large and important 
village of Bhamdun, in case he should remain at his 
post on the mountains. He agreed to remain, and when 
the American Consul invited him to come down to Bei- 
rut and then changed that invitation to an order, he pre- 
ferred to disobey the order and remain, if by so doing he 
could protect the people of his parish. 'Yoosef Abd 
el Malek' (the Druze Chieftain), said the Consul, 
'will cut your throat for a sixpence.' But my father 
trusted the Druze Chieftain, and they kept their 
promise. 

"I remember, as a boy of about eight years old, a 
council of war held in my father's study, when some 
twelve or fifteen Druze chiefs assembled. One of them 
asked my father, 'Where are your weapons, sir?' (In a 
Druze palace the principal room is always a regular 
arsenal.) 'At your sides, gentlemen; I am a man of 
peace.' 

"On one occasion, when the Druzes of the interior 
came with their mules to carry off the booty from 
Bhamdun, which was a rich village, they were met at 

[268] 



Biographical Sketches 

a gate of the town by the same Yoosef Abd el Malek, 
accompanied by my father and a few others. 'Not a 
chicken will you take from this village,' said Sheik 
Yoosef, 'except over my dead body.' 'If that be so/ 
said the wild mountaineers, 'we'll go back.' They did 
so, and Bhamdun was the only Christian village of the 
Lebanon that was not burned and plundered during 
that terrible massacre. 

"You will find an account of that uprising in 
Colonel Churchill's work on the Druzes of Mount 
Lebanon." 

Mr. Benton was married at Tolland, Connecticut, 
May 18, 1847, the day of his ordination, to Miss 
Loanza S. Goulding, who was born in Hubbardston, 
but was then residing in Sterling, Massachusetts. She 
was a daughter of Jason Goulding, and granddaughter, 
on her mother's side, of Daniel Howe, who was of Eng- 
lish descent. She died in 1900. 

Of seven children born to them four are living: 
Charles William, who was born in Tolland, was 
graduated at Yale in 1874, and is now Professor 
of Romance Languages in the University of Min- 
nesota; Edwin Austin, born in Bhamdun, a graduate 
of Yale in the class of 1878; Mrs. Harriet B. Clark, 
wife of J. S. Clark, Professor of Latin in the Univer- 
sity of Minnesota; and Miss Mary L. Benton, formerly 
Professor of Latin in Smith College, and now Profes- 
sor of Latin and Dean of women in Carlton College. 

John Cotton Strong, son of Joseph and Rhoda 
C. (Gates) Strong, and brother of Joseph D wight 
Strong (Williams 1849), was born in Granby, Con- 
necticut, May 12, 1818. The mother was a daughter 
of Jesse and Rhoda (Reed) Gates of Simsbury, Con- 
necticut. Joseph Strong, the father, was a farmer, 
the son of Deacon Elnathan and Rachel (Warren) 

[269] 



Williams College and Missions 

Strong. The immigrant ancestor of the family was 
Elder John Strong, who came to Dorchester, Massa- 
chusetts, about 1632, and then removed to Hingham, 
Massachusetts. John Cotton Strong fitted for col- 
lege at Monson Academy, and entered college in 1839, 
having for one of his classmates Joseph Kingsbury 
Wight, who became a missionary to China, and who is 
(1914) one of the two surviving members of the class. 
In college he was a member of the Philotechnian So- 
ciety and of the Mills Theological Society. After 
graduation, he studied theology at East Windsor, Con- 
necticut, graduating there in 1846. Having received 
from the American Board an appointment as a mission- 
ary to the Choctaw Indians, he was ordained at Bland- 
ford, Massachusetts, December 16, 1846, and departed 
for his mission January, 1847. He was located for a 
time at Washita and then at Mount Pleasant. This is 
the mission where Alfred Wright (Williams 1812) la- 
bored with great success for over thirty years, having 
gone there soon after the beginning of the mission. 
When Mr. Strong began his work there, he found the 
mission in a highly prosperous condition. The re- 
port given in the Missionary Herald for 1848, states: 
"Eight churches, embracing more than 800 members, 
more than seventy of whom have been received to fel- 
lowship during the past year, are under the care of this 
mission. There are four boarding-schools for girls, 
embracing about 165 pupils; and one for boys, with 
fifteen pupils ; also three free schools, with about eighty 
pupils. The progress in the schools, and the demeanor 
of the pupils, has been highly encouraging, and such as 
to gratify their parents and call forth their commenda- 
tions." Mr. Strong entered into this labor which had 
been done by others and was himself successful in his 
own work. He came to feel, however, that he could 
not consistently remain in his position while slavery 

[270] 



Biographical Sketches 

was allowed in the territory, and therefore sought and 
obtained relief from connection with the Board in 1849. 

He next engaged in home missionary work in Illi- 
nois, being located for one year at Edgington. From 
1850 to 1853 he supplied the Congregational Church 
at Chester Factory, Massachusetts. From 1854 to 
1856 he preached at Lyons, Iowa; and from 1857 to 
1859 at Bradford in the same state. Then for two 
years he was superintendent of schools in Chickasaw 
County. He then removed to Minnesota, being acting 
pastor at Albert Lea 1863-64, and at Chain Lake Cen- 
tre 1864-70. From 1870 to 1891 he was without 
charge. After 1891 he resided at South Seattle, Wash- 
ington, where he died December 1, 1896, aged 78 years. 
The funeral services were conducted by Rev. Edmund 
Wright (Williams 1836), and Rev. George H. Lee 
(Williams 1879). 

He married on December 15, 1846, at Blandford, 
Massachusetts, Celia Semantha, daughter of Dr. Silas 
P. and Grace (Anderson) Wight of Blandford, who 
died March 2, 1850. He married next, April 23, 1857, 
Mrs. Cynthia Rosetta, widow of Chapin Hamlin, and 
daughter of Phineas and Sabra (Buell) Newton, of 
Newport, New Hampshire, who survived him with a 
son, a daughter, and an adopted daughter. 

Joseph Kingsbury Wight, son of Daniel and 
Roxana (Kingsbury) Wight, grandson of Daniel and 
Mary (Puffer) Wight and of Joseph and Lois R. 
(Porter) Kingsbury, was born in Jewett City, Con- 
necticut, February 9, 1824. The immigrant ances- 
tors of the Wights and Kingsburys came from Eng- 
land in 1630 and 1635, and settled in Dedham, Massa- 
chusetts. A relative of the subject of this sketch was 
Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury (Brown University 1812), who 
was missionary to the Choctaw Indians, was imprisoned 

[271] 



Williams College and Missions 

in their defence, and moved with them beyond the 
Mississippi River. 

The father of Joseph Kingsbury Wight was a man- 
ufacturer. In 1825 he was one of the organizers of the 
Second Ecclesiastical Society of Griswold, Connecti- 
cut. He lived for a time in Coventry, Connecticut, 
where he was remembered as an enterprising citizen. 
It is related that while he was living in Troy, New 
York, the employes of his factory were summoned to 
prayers every morning at six o'clock by sound of the 
bell. In 1841 he was School Commissioner, and in 
1843 an Alderman. 

The son fitted for college partly in schools in Troy, 
New York, and partly at Foote's Boarding-school in 
Williamstown, Massachusetts. He entered college as a 
Freshman in 1839. He united with the church con- 
nected with the college when he was sixteen years of 
age. He was a member of the Philologian Society. At 
the Senior Exhibition, December 20, 1842, he was one 
of the speakers, his subject being "Contemplation." He 
was a diligent and successful student, graduating with 
the appointment of an Oration, and was one of the 
speakers at the Commencement, August 17, 1843, the 
subject of his oration being "The Beautiful." 

After graduation he spent one year in Georgia as 
colporteur of the American Tract Society. He stud- 
ied theology for a time at Columbia, South Carolina, 
but from 1845 to 1848 was a member of Princeton 
Theological Seminary, where he was graduated in the 
latter year. On June 3, 1847, he was licensed to preach 
by the Presbytery of Troy, and was ordained as an 
evangelist by the same Presbytery, August 23, 1848. 
In the same year he went out as a missionary to Ningpo, 
China, under the appointment of the Presbyterian 
Board of Foreign Missions. After a short time he 
was located at Shanghai. Within a few years he was 

[ 272 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

compelled by ill health to return to the United States, 
and was finally obliged, for the same reason, to relin- 
quish the foreign field. In the year 1858-59 he was 
stated supply of the Second Church in Troy, and then 
stated supply of the Ellessdie Chapel at New Ham- 
burgh, New York. He then became stated supply 
at Crescent City, Florida, for the years 1883-85, and at 
Satsuma Heights, 1885-87, and from 1888 at Green 
Cove Springs. He organized three churches in Florida 
and has been a Presbyterian preacher for over sixty- 
two years. 

He was married in Princeton, New Jersey, August 
16, 1848, to Miss Elizabeth Neil, daughter of William 
J. and Margaret (Nevius) Van Dyke. She died Jan- 
uary 22, 1882, at New Hamburgh. There were born to 
them eighteen children, of whom eight are living. Two, 
a son and daughter, were missionaries in China, where 
they died in the work. The living are Mrs. Lizzie W. 
Norton; Miss Emma Wight; James E. Wight, sales- 
man; Luther Wight, clerk; Mrs. Mary E. Williams; 
Miss Jessie K. Wight; Rev. E. Van Dyke Wight, 
D.D. (Princeton 1892) ; Miss Julia C. Wight. 

Mr. Wight is still living (1914), one of two surviv- 
ing members of the class of 1843, and resides at New 
Hamburgh. 

Mr. Wight's published writings are: "History of 
the Presbytery of North River" ; "History of the Pres- 
bytery of East Florida"; "Reminiscences of fifty years 
in the Ministry"; "Brief memorial of my two mission- 
ary children, Rev. Calvin Wight and his sister, Fannie 
E. Wight"; "The Beginning of things in Nature and 
in Grace" (Philadelphia, 1911). The most of his pub- 
lished writings, however, are found in the Princeton 
Review. He has also written for the Presbyterian and 
the New York Evangelist. 

[278] 



Williams College and Missions 

CLASS OF 1844 

Jacob Best, son of John and Margaret (Lape) 
Best, was born in Livingston, New York, February 3, 
1823. The father was a farmer by occupation, and the 
parents are described as pious, industrious, frugal, and 
intelligent. The son fitted for college in Claverack, 
New York, and entered Williams as a Freshman, in 
1840. In college he was a member of the Mills Theo- 
logical Society and of the Philotechnian Society. 
Three of his classmates became missionaries in for- 
eign fields: Joshua Edwards Ford, in Syria; Cyrus 
Taggart Mills, in India; and David Rood, in South 
Africa. 

After graduation he managed for a season a farm 
which his father had given him, but called by a sense of 
duty to the ministry, he studied theology at Union 
Seminary and was ordained by Presbytery, December 
6, 1848. Having determined to go on a mission to 
the heathen, he was accepted by the American Board, 
and sailed for the Gaboon Mission, West Africa, 
November 3, 1849. He acquired the language of the 
country very readily so that after nine months of study 
he was preaching weekly in the Bakali. In 1852 he 
was stationed at Olandebenk, twenty-five miles from 
Baraka. In 1853 he returned to this country, and hav- 
ing married, he sailed with his wife for his field Decem- 
ber 10 of the same year. In the earlier part of that year 
he had made an excursion through the Bakali country 
and the following year he helped Mr. Preston to make 
a final revision of "Outlines of Bakali Grammar." In 
1856 he was stationed at Baraka, where he continued 
to labor with great zeal and success, performing much 
pioneer work, until, after twelve years of service, in 
1861 a wasting fever compelled him to return to this 
country. For three years he resided in Stuyvesant, 
New York, occasionally preaching in the neighboring 

[274] 



Biographical Sketches 

churches. Failing to recover his health, in April, 1864, 
he reluctantly terminated his connection with the 
Board, and then went to Waymart, Pennsylvania, 
where he took charge of two small churches, and where 
he remained till the fall of 1875, when he went to 
Brooklyn, Pennsylvania, to take charge of a church 
there, over which he was installed as pastor by the 
Lackawanna Presbytery May 26, 1885. 

In 1895 the infirmities of age led him to give up the 
active duties of the ministry and he went to live with 
a son-in-law at Coventry, New York. Here he died 
April 16, 1898, from heart failure following an attack 
of the grippe. The funeral was held at his old church 
in Brooklyn, Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Best's character in college and in subsequent 
years was such as to win from classmates words of the 
highest praise. One of the surviving classmates spoke 
of him as "that staunch good man," while another 
writes, "Dear Best's modest, conscientious manliness 
and earnest devotion to duty, as well as his superior 
scholarship, won for him the confidence and respect of 
the whole class, and the warm love of his most imme- 
diate friends." 

He had the rare happiness of being one of the 
nine of the then twelve surviving members of his class 
who attended the fiftieth anniversary meeting at their 
Alma Mater in 1894, and at their adjournment he made 
the closing prayer. 

Mr. Best was married December 1, 1853, in Ovid, 
New York, to Miss Gertrude Nevius, daughter of 
John and Gertrude (Hegeman) Nevius. There were 
born to them four children. At his death he was sur- 
vived by his widow, two daughters, and a son. The 
son, John L. Best, resides in Northampton, Massachu- 
setts, and a daughter, Mrs. G. W. Adams, resides in 
Rochester, New York. The following letter, of date 

[275] 



Williams College and Missions 

July 11, 1911, is from Dr. Calvin C. Halsey, one of the 
two surviving classmates of Mr. Best. 

"Mr, Best entered college with his class in the fall 
of 1840. He was between seventeen and eighteen 
years of age. The son of well-to-do parents, he was 
not obliged to economize in his college course. Possess- 
ing a sweet and amiable disposition, he was loved by his 
classmates, who were wont to call him Jake. Although 
he had not publicly professed his faith in Christ, his life 
was exemplary and consistent. 

"In a revival in college early in 1842, he gave his 
heart to Christ and at the communion of the College 
Church in June following he was received as a member 
on confession of faith. Job Pierson of the class of 
1842 and Calvin C. Halsey of the class of 1844, were 
received in like manner at the same time. Rev. Dr. 
Mark Hopkins was the pastor. 

"Mr. Best was faithful and conscientious in his du- 
ties as a student and a professing Christian. He grew 
with the passing years. Modest and retiring in dispo- 
sition, he shrank from honors to which his classmates 
thought him entitled. 

"It was a surprise to many of his classmates that he 
chose the ministry for his life work, and especially to 
be a foreign missionary and go to Africa! From the 
day of his conversion he felt that he was not his own; 
that he was bought with a price. His duty hence- 
forth was to glorify God. He did a grand work for 
the Master in Africa from 1849 to 1861, when 
failing health compelled him to return to his native 
land. 

"Between thirty and forty years he ministered to 
small churches in Wayne and Susquehanna Counties, 
Pennsylvania. He was greatly beloved by all to 
whom he ministered. 

"He died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Gertrude 

[ 276 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

B. Merriam, in Coventry, New York, in April, 1898, 
and was buried in Brooklyn, Pennsylvania." 

Joshua Edwaeds Foed, son of George W. and 
Mary (Edwards) Ford, was born at Ogdensburg, New 
York, August 3, 1825. He was the grandson of Major 
Mahlon Ford, who was an officer of the Revolutionary 
Army. His mother, who is described as a truly pious 
and lovely woman, died when he was but three years of 
age and at her death consecrated him, an only child, to 
the gospel ministry. He was hopefully converted at 
his native place in 1837, and in 1839 united with the 
First Presbyterian Church of Poughkeepsie, New 
York. He studied for a time at Ogdensburg Acad- 
emy, where he had for a teacher Tayler Lewis. His 
preparation for college was completed at the Pough- 
keepsie Collegiate School, from which he entered 
Williams as a Freshman in 1840. In college he was 
a member of the Philologian and of the Mills Theo- 
logical Societies. He was one of the speakers at the 
Junior Exhibition, his subject being, "Originality." 
At Commencement he had an oration, the subject be- 
ing, "Making Haste Slowly." Having previously de- 
cided to study for the ministry, while he was in college 
his mind was directed to foreign missions through the 
exhortations of Rev. Henry R. Hoisington (Williams 
1828), of the Ceylon Mission. He studied theology 
for three years at Union Seminary, where he was grad- 
uated in 1847. During his seminary course, he spent 
his vacations doing the work of a colporteur of the 
American Tract Society, in Pike County, Pennsylva- 
nia. He was licensed to preach by the Fourth Pres- 
bytery of New York in April, 1847, and was ordained 
in New York the following September. Having of- 
fered himself to the American Board and having been 
accepted, he was appointed to the Syrian Mission. He 

[277] 



Williams College and Missions 

sailed from Boston December 29, 1847, and arrived at 
Beirut March 8, 1848. Shortly after this he was des- 
ignated for Aleppo, to which place he proceeded, with 
Rev. William A. Benton, who had been a college mate 
for a time, reaching that place on April 19. Here he 
remained seven years, finding it a field of peculiar trials, 
owing to the numbers and variety of his labors and the 
prejudice of the people against the truth. Besides 
discharging the regular duties of a missionary for that 
city, he was forwarding agent, postmaster, and banker 
for several of the stations farther in the interior. 
Responding to an urgent call, leaving his family in 
Aleppo, he spent six months in Mosul, preaching the 
gospel. On the formation of the Central Turkey Mis- 
sion, which included Aleppo within its field, Mr. Ford 
was transferred to Beirut, where he labored success- 
fully for four years. He was next appointed to the 
Sidon station, where he was associated, as he had been 
at Aleppo, with Rev. W. W. Eddy (Williams 1845), 
who had been a college mate. In Sidon he had to meet 
the responsibilities of a wide field, while much of the 
time his associates were laid aside by sickness. In 
1861, by invitation of the Turkish Missions Aid Soci- 
ety, he visited England, where he spent several months 
in presenting the claims of Syria upon the sympathies 
of the Church of Christ. In the summer of 1864 he 
removed to Deir Mimas, a village in the eastern part 
of the Sidon district, that he might have greater facility 
in reaching the congregations and schools in that region. 
In May, 1865, on account of the illness of the family, 
he was compelled to return to this country, arriving in 
New York in August. He fixed his residence in 
Geneseo, Illinois, where he labored in preaching, in the 
Bible class, and as a colporteur. The addresses he 
made in different places in this country on the subject 
of Missions were most interesting and acceptable. His 

[278] 



Biographical Sketches 

health had been undermined by his eighteen years of 
hard service in Syria, and he became an easy prey to 
disease. On Sabbath, March 25, 1866, he rode several 
miles on horseback to preach in a destitute neighbor- 
hood, and returning in the evening, he was chilled by 
the ride. He was attacked by inflammation of the 
lungs, from which he died April 3, at the age of 41. 

In his last sickness, his mind dwelt with interest on 
the subject of missions, and even in its wanderings re- 
turned to Syria, his old field of labor. Though from 
the nature of his disease he was not allowed to say 
much, he left a stirring message, a part of which is here 
given. As his disease lay heavy upon him, he suddenly 
roused himself and said, with great emphasis: "I have 
a testimony to give, and I had better do it now. Tell 
the Christian young men of America that the responsi- 
bility of saving the world rests on them: not on the old 
men, but on the young men. 33 

After his death, Rev. Dr. Henry H. Jessup wrote 
from Beirut: "The news of the death of Mr. Ford 
has plunged us all into deep affliction. We have lost a 
brother, a personal friend, a cherished companion, and 
an able, accomplished, and devoted missionary. 

"As a linguist, Mr. Ford had few superiors. He 
spoke and wrote the Arabic, Turkish, and French well. 
His knowledge of the Arabic was exact and compre- 
hensive. Dr. Eli Smith remarked that he had at com- 
mand a larger vocabulary of Arabic words than almost 
any other missionary. His knowledge was also criti- 
cal, and his judgment of great value in the editing of 
Arabic books for the press." 

Dr. Jessup speaks further of his sermons, which 
were forcible and impressive, of his sober, calm, and 
clear judgment, making him a wise counsellor, of his 
iron frame and great physical vigor, which enabled him 
to be indefatigable in missionary labor. 

[279] 



Williams College and Missions 

At the annual meeting of the Board that year, after 
the Secretary, Dr. Wood, had referred to the death of 
several missionaries, Dr. Hopkins, the President of the 
Board, spoke as follows: "Mr. Ford I speak of rather 
than the others, because I knew him well; and I feel 
that I cannot speak of him too highly. He was a most 
able, judicious, thoroughly accomplished, and conse- 
crated man. His spirit may be judged of from the 
fact, that when he went out he gave all his property, 
which was considerable, to the Board. I remember 
conversing with him upon it, and questioning the ex- 
pediency of the step ; but he said he preferred to do it, 
and to be on the same footing with his brethren in the 
field. It may not always be wise for a soldier, when 
he passes a river into an enemy's country, to burn the 
bridge, but it shows his spirit. He burnt the bridge. 
He had no thought of returning to enjoy himself in this 
country; but after eighteen years of steady service he 
came back with his sick wife ; and in his incessant labors 
for the cause was prostrated and died." 

Mr. Ford has been spoken of by others as among 
the ablest and most useful missionaries the American 
Board has ever sent out. Wherever he went he im- 
pressed people by his freedom from ostentation, by his 
ability, sincerity, and earnestness. 

Mr. Ford was married, September 6, 1847, to Mary 
Perry, of Williamstown, Massachusetts, daughter of 
Dr. Alfred Perry, formerly of Stockbridge, Massachu- 
setts. There were born to them five sons and two 
daughters. The second son, George Alfred Ford, 
born in Aleppo, Syria, was graduated from this col- 
lege in 1872, and received here the honorary degree of 
Doctor of Divinity in 1894. He has been a mission-, 
ary in Syria since 1880, and is at present Professor of 
New Testament Theology and the Life of Christ in 
Beirut Theological Seminary. 

[280] 



Williams College and Missions 

The following letter will be read with interest not 
only because it presents some additional facts but be- 
cause it was recently written by Dr. Calvin C. Halsey, 
one of the two surviving classmates of Mr. Ford : 

"Mr. Ford entered college at the age of sixteen in 
the class of 1844. He was one of the younger students 
and wore a roundabout. From the first he was known 
for his consistent Christian character. Those who 
knew him would no sooner have expected him to do any- 
thing wrong than they would Professor Albert Hop- 
kins. He had a cheery social side, but there was no 
nonsense about him. He led a consecrated life and 
was always active in work for the Master. He was 
faithful and conscientious as a student and maintained 
a high standing in his class. Scholarship was a second- 
ary matter with him. He would glorify God in win- 
ning souls for the Master, and there are many who 
gratefully remember the salutary influence of his life. 

"He chose to be a foreign missionary and did a no- 
ble work in Syria for eighteen years. On account of 
the health of Mrs. Ford he returned to his native land 
in 1865 and died at Geneseo, Illinois, April 3, 1866. 

"Rev. Henry H. Jessup, D.D., and Rev. J. Lo- 
renzo Lyons, D.D., both of Montrose, Pennsylvania, 
and for several years associated with Mr. Ford in the 
Syrian Mission, have borne testimony to the grand work 
which Mr. Ford did for the cause of Christ in Syria. 

"Seated alphabetically, in class-room and chapel I 
was near him for four years. He always commanded 
my highest respect and esteem." 

Cyrus Taggaet Mills was born in Paris, Oneida 
County, New York, May 4, 1819. When he was four 
years of age his parents removed to Lenox, Madison 
County, New York, and there he grew up on a farm. 
He was converted in February, 1838, and united with 

[281] 



Williams College and Missions 

the church the following May. He had previously- 
longed for an education, and now, dedicating himself 
to the missionary work, he began the study of Latin. 
He fitted for college at Williamstown, and at Manlius, 
New York. He entered college from Lenox, New 
York. In college he was a member of the Philotech- 
nian Society, and the Mills Theological Society. He 
was a successful student, and was one of the speakers 
at Commencement, his subject being "Feeling and 
Principle." 

After graduation he entered Union Theological 
Seminary, from which he graduated in 1847. During 
his course in the seminary he was active in doing 
missionary work among the poor of the city. He was 
licensed to preach in April, 1847, by the Third Presby- 
tery of New York, and ordained at the Brainard 
Church in February, in 1848. He spent a year in 
studying Tamil with a returned missionary from Cey- 
lon, at the same time doing some preaching. 

He with his wife embarked from Boston on the 
10th of October, 1848, under appointment of the Amer- 
ican Board to join the Ceylon Mission. They reached 
Madras February 20, 1849, and Ceylon, March 5. In 
April he was appointed by the Jaffna Mission Profes- 
sor of Science in the Batticotta Seminary, and in Feb- 
ruary, 1850, he succeeded Mr. Hoisington (Williams 
1828) as president, which position he held till 1853. 

In the Batticotta Seminary, which in 1851 came 
under his sole charge, Mr. Mills aimed at sound schol- 
arship and at imparting a thorough knowledge of the 
Scriptures with good religious training. The cata- 
logue of the seminary issued by Mr. Mills was quite 
unique in many of its features. In the first place, the 
students were enrolled by their English names, some of 
which had been given in honor of some American bene- 
factor, or distinguished person. In the list appear the 

[ 282 1 



Biographical Sketches 

names S. H. Taylor, Edward Beecher, E. N. Kirk, 
Henry A. Nelson, Derrick L. Boardman, Henry Clay, 
Samuel W. S. Dutton. Besides a column assigned to 
residences, columns are also severally given to "Char- 
acter of Parents," "Scholarship," "Religious Charac- 
ter," "Age," and "Remarks." In 1852, there were 
over 100 pupils in the seminary and Mr. Mills was 
gradually bringing it to a self-supporting basis. The 
graduates were going forth to occupy positions of in- 
fluence and Mr. Mills was laying broad and deep the 
foundations of an institution which was subsequently 
to be developed into Jaffna College, when the failure 
of Mrs. Mills' health compelled them to leave the field. 
They embarked for their native land December 21, 1853, 
and spending two months at the Cape of Good Hope, 
reached Boston May 13, 1854. He had the happy op- 
portunity of attending in Williamstown the decennial 
meeting of his class. The next two years were spent 
in the service of the Board in travelling, visiting, and 
delivering addresses on missionary subjects. Being 
prevented by his wife's health from returning to India, 
he preached three months in Southbridge, Massachu- 
setts, and then settled in Berkshire, New York. Be- 
ing obliged by the failure of his own health, at the end 
of two years, to give up preaching, he spent two years 
in Ware, Massachusetts, the last year in successful 
business. On the recommendation of Dr. Mark Hop- 
kins, he was appointed President of Oahu College, 
Sandwich Islands, to succeed Rev. Dr. E. G. Beckwith 
(Williams 1849). He sailed for that field in 1860. 
As his health was only partially restored, and gradu- 
ally failed after he reached the Islands, he was obliged, 
after four years, to relinquish what he considered a very 
interesting and useful field of labor, and returned home. 
He then took up his residence at Benicia, California, 
where he purchased Miss Atkins' School, with which he 

[ 283] 



Williams College and Missions 

was connected seven years. Having purchased land in 
Oakland that rapidly increased in value, and friends of 
education making generous donations for the purpose, 
he decided to erect buildings there, and in 1871 he re- 
opened the seminary in Oakland. He made additions 
of buildings and improvements, till by his wise finan- 
cial management the school property increased to the 
value of $275,000. The grounds around the seminary 
comprised about eighty acres in fine cultivation. The 
pupils were drawn from all the Pacific Coast and from 
the islands of the sea, and were of all Protestant denom- 
inations, as well as Jews, Catholics, and infidels. Mr. 
and Mrs. Mills rightly felt that they were still doing 
something of missionary work. This seminary was 
really the great and worthy work of their lives. At 
the time of the death of Mr. Mills the school had nearly 
200 students and had sent forth nearly 300 graduates. 
In 1877 the seminary was incorporated and all the 
property deeded by Dr. and Mrs. Mills to a Board of 
Trustees to be held forever for the cause of Christian 
education. 

Mr. Mills died at the seminary April 20, 1884, and 
was buried in the beautiful grounds where he had 
planned to build a cottage and spend his remaining 
days. Among the trustees of the seminary who took 
part in the funeral services were two Williams College 
graduates, Rev. Dr. E. G. Beckwith of the class of 
1849 and Rev. R. L. Tabor of the class of 1869, the 
latter preaching the sermon. 

The following account of Dr. Mills' final illness 
and death is given by the Occident: "The final illness 
of Dr. Mills was largely the result of overwork. The 
dregs of the disease contracted in India had never been 
eradicated. Shortly before his death he remarked to 
a friend that he had not been free from pain for thirty- 
five years. About two months ago his right arm began 

[284] 



Biographical Sketches 

to give him slight trouble. At first he paid little at- 
tention to it but it soon became evident that the 
matter was serious. The best of medical help was 
summoned and amputation was determined to be nec- 
essary. He was perfectly tranquil and resigned say- 
ing to his physician, 'I cannot think now but I can trust/ 
After it was all over he seemed to rally but it was only 
the bright flash before the final going and gently and 
calmly as he had lived his patient spirit took its heavenly 
flight." 

The trustees of the seminary spoke of his "noble 
devotion" and "unselfish generosity," and passed the 
following resolution: "We hereby record our appre- 
ciation of the true Christian character and manliness of 
our deceased friend. Associated with him in our offi- 
cial relations we bear testimony to the wisdom of his 
counsels, the soundness of his judgment, his financial 
skill, his clear foresight, his genial manners, his earnest 
purpose and his transparent rectitude." 

The Presbytery of San Francisco bore testimony 
to his useful life in the "active work of the ministry 
in both the home and foreign fields of the Church, 
and an honored career in the grand work of woman's 
education." 

Dr. Mills received the honorary degree of Doctor 
of Divinity from his Alma Mater in 1870. 

The following letter was written July 11, 1911, by 
Dr. Calvin C. Halsey, of Montrose, Pennsylvania, 
one of the two surviving members of the class of 
1844. 

"Mr. Mills at the age of twenty-one years entered 
Williams College in the fall of 1840, and graduated in 
the class of 1844. 

"He taught school during the long vacations, and 
was steward of boarding clubs to help pay his way 
through college. He was diligent in the improvement 

[ 285 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

of his time and maintained a high standing in his class. 
Throughout all his college life he exerted a marked in- 
fluence for the cause of Christ and the extension of his 
kingdom. 

"Sometime during his college course, Rev. Henry 
R. Hoisington of the class of 1828, visited the college 
and told the students about missionary work in India. 
Mr. Mills was deeply interested in this and at once 
commenced the study of the Tamil language in order 
to prepare himself for work in that field. He sailed 
as missionary of the American Board to Ceylon in 
1848 and remained until December, 1853, when he was 
obliged to return to this country on account of his 
health. Few alumni of Williams College have accom- 
plished more good than he. For thirty-one years he 
lectured on Missions, preached, and taught. 

"He was president of Oahu College about three 
years. He founded Mills Seminary and College in 
California and was president of the same until his 
death, April 20, 1884. A leading San Francisco paper 
said of him : 'He had done more for education in Cal- 
ifornia than any other individual in the history of the 
State. When he died he left something behind him. 
Money, in his view, was desirable as a means of doing 
good. He founded an institution of learning, gave to 
it the greater part of his fortune and then put it in the 
hands of trustees for the benefit of the public. He un- 
consciously built his own monument.' " 

Mr. Mills was married September 11, 1848, to 
Miss Susan Lincoln Tolman, of Ware, Massachusetts, 
a graduate of Mount Holyoke Seminary, in the class 
of 1845. After the death of Dr. Mills, Mrs. Mills took 
full charge of the seminary, and, feeling that it should 
be expanded into a college, in 1885 secured from the 
State a charter. Mrs. Mills not only supervised all 
the details of the management of the college, but also 

[ 286 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

took a vital interest in every student who came to the 
college. 

She died in 1912. After her death it was written 
of her: "Many a girl who would have been unable to 
secure a college education otherwise, succeeded because 
of the personal influence which Mrs. Mills exercised. 
Her great desire that the women who went out from 
Mills College should be good students, true women, and 
strong Christians showed itself in untiring action to 
accomplish that purpose. Hers was a life of great 
human influence and of noble service. " 

David Rood was born in Buckland, Massachusetts, 
April 25, 1818, being the son of James and Abigail 
Rood. In 1827 he went from there with his parents to 
live in Plainfleld, Massachusetts. He came of genuine 
Puritan stock, and was of most worthy, though humble 
parentage, his mother being a woman of rare excellence 
of character. His youth was passed on a farm; a 
strong constitution, rugged health, and a good char- 
acter were the valued possessions of these years. He 
made a profession of religion at the age of twenty. He 
fitted for college in Buckland, with Whiting Griswold, 
Esq., and entered Williams as a Freshman in 1840. 
He became a member of the Philologian Society. It 
is related that during Freshman year he cared for the 
recitation room and boarded himself, and that subse- 
quently he became a steward of boarding clubs to help 
pay expenses. Dr. Calvin C. Halsey, one of his two 
surviving classmates, writes of him: "He was a very 
plain, unassuming man, but in dead earnest to get an 
education. He desired an education that he might be 
useful in the world. He maintained a good standing 
in scholarship and had the respect of all who knew him 
in college. He led an active Christian life, and it was 
the natural thing that after his graduation he should 

[ 287 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

study for the ministry and become a foreign mission- 
ary." He received the appointment of an Oration, and 
was one of the speakers at Commencement, August 21, 
1844, the subject of his address being "The Christian 
Student." After graduation, he studied theology at 
the East Windsor Seminary, completing the course in 
1847. He is said to have paid his way through the sem- 
inary, as he had done through college. 

His mind developed very much during his seminary 
course, and he became a most acceptable preacher, so 
that he could have commanded desirable positions as a 
pastor in this country, had he not decided to be a mis- 
sionary. Just when, or by what particular influence, 
he chose his life work is not related. It is to be remem- 
bered, however, that he was in college in a time when 
there was more or less of enthusiasm for mission work ; 
fifteen of his college mates going as foreign missiona- 
ries, three of these, — Jacob Best, Joshua Edwards Ford, 
and Cyrus Taggart Mills, — being members of his own 
class. He was ordained as a missionary in Plainfield, 
October 6, 1847, and sailed from Boston for South Af- 
rica on the 28th of the same month. He was, at first, 
stationed for three years at If afa among the Zulus. His 
principal work was done at Amanzimtoti, where he 
spent seventeen years, and at Umvoti, where he spent 
twenty years. Thus, with the exception of two years 
of rest from overwork which were spent in America, 
he rounded out forty years' faithful service under the 
auspices of the American Board. 

The following modest account of the nature of his 
work is taken from a letter which he wrote to the class 
secretary in 1884 on the occasion of the fortieth anni- 
versary of his graduation: "My life has been a busy one, 
and I trust, through the blessing of God, has produced 
some good work among the Zulus. I have been favored 
with a good degree of health since my visit to America 

[288] 



Biographical Sketches 

in 1860-61. I feel entirely at home among the people, 
and am happy in my work. My duties are in various 
lines, requiring versatility of talent. First and greatest 
of all, is the trying to fulfil the last and great com- 
mand of our Master. And besides preaching to con- 
gregations, I often visit the people at out-stations and 
also in their kraals, and have the oversight of native 
preachers and teachers with whom we hold conferences 
and institutes. We have classes for Sunday-school 
teachers and candidates for admission to the church. I 
have to look after the schools, and have done something 
in preparing school-books. I am also doctor for the 
sick, and am often called upon to calm and harmonize 
discordant elements among an excitable people. 

"I have for many years been the senior member of 
our mission, and held the position of chairman. With 
one exception, I am the senior clergyman in the colony, 
the number of whom is about seventy-five. I was made 
the first chairman of the Congregational Union, which 
was formed last year, consisting of English ministers 
and missionaries. 

"We are trying to lay good foundations for the 
building up of Christ's Kingdom among the Zulus. By 
preaching the gospel, organizing churches, giving the 
people the Bible in their own tongue, establishing 
schools, creating a literature, we hope to raise up com- 
munities that shall not only be lights among the many 
thousands who are in darkness, but shall be aggressive 
and help carry the blessings of the gospel to those of 
their own race.' , 

About four years after the writing of this letter, in 
1888, he returned to the United States, and deeming it 
unwise, at his advanced age, to resume his labors, he 
took up his residence with some of his brothers at Co- 
vert, Michigan. Here he continued his mission work, 
revising the New Testament in Zulu for a new edition, 

[289] 



Williams College and Missions 

addressing churches in behalf of missions, and making 
himself useful in many ways, especially among the 
young, till he died from an attack of paralysis, April 
8, 1891. 

In estimating the importance of the work done by 
Mr. Rood, we must remember that when he arrived in 
Natal it was but twelve years after the mission was first 
started, and that in 1835, when the American mission- 
aries first arrived there, the country was described 
as a "howling wilderness," having, as it was believed, 
not more than 3000 native inhabitants. Before he died, 
Amanzimtoti, where he labored so long, came to have 
nearly half a million inhabitants, chiefly of Zulu origin, 
with some natives of India and Europeans, and the 
Zulu Mission had near a score of churches and 150 
laborers. 

Mr. Rood early acquired a familiarity with the Zulu 
language, having a superior knowledge of its idioms, 
and could preach in it more fluently than in English. 
While he excelled as a preacher and spiritual adviser, 
he was thorough and skilful in the work of translation 
and in preparing books for schools. 

Rev. Lewis Grout, one of his associates in the Zulu 
Mission, wrote of him after his death: "Mr. Rood had 
the esteem and confidence of the natives, who called him 
'Baba' (Father) ; he was held in honor by the colonists 
of all classes and professions; upon his sympathy, coun- 
sel and character his associates in mission work put a 
high estimate. He was gentle, quiet, modest, winning 
in his ways; yet strong, courageous, earnest, confident 
in his work, assured that it was of God, who would 
make it prosper and prevail." 

Mr. Rood was married at Plainfield, October 3, 
1847, to Alzina V. Pixley, daughter of Noah and Han- 
nah (Shaw) Pixley, and sister of his classmate, Martin 
Shaw Pixley, and of Stephen Clapp Pixley (Williams 

[ 290] 



Biographical Sketches 

1852). She was a graduate of Mount Holyoke Semi- 
nary. Mrs. Rood embarked with her husband shortly 
after their marriage, and was his faithful helper during 
all his long period of service. She with two children, a 
daughter and son, survived her husband. She died at 
Lake wood, Xew Jersey, March 10, 1901. The daugh- 
ter, Sarah Aurelia, was graduated at Abbot Academy, 
Andover; the son, Henry Martyn, was graduated at 
Yale in 1877. 

Mr. Rood published "Talks on the Works of Na- 
ture"; "Primary Geography"; "Primary Arithmetic." 
He also translated several editions of a Hymn-book, 
and a portion of the Scriptures into the Zulu language. 



CLASS OF 1845 

Stephen Bush, son of Orry and Fanny (Goold) 
Bush, was born May 30, 1818, in East Nassau, Rensse- 
laer County, Xew York. He was the grandson of Ma- 
jor Abijah and Mary (Callinder) Bush, and of David 
and Rebecca (Granger) Goold. On his father's side, 
Stephen Bush was descended from one of two brothers, 
John and Samuel Bush, who came from Scotland and 
settled near Boston, probably between 1635 and 1650. 
On his mother's side he was of English descent. His 
grandfather, Abijah Bush, who lived to be 92 years 
of age, was a major in the Revolutionary War. He 
and his son, Orry, were active in the affairs of the 
church and town. Orry Bush, who was a farmer by 
occupation, was a Quartermaster in the War of 1812. 

Stephen Bush united with the Second Presbyterian 
Church of Albany, Xew York, at the age of fifteen. 
He seems to have pursued his studies preparatory for 
college in part in Professor Charles Anthony's Pre- 
paratory School in Albany, Xew York, and in part 
under Professor Thomas H. Hall, in Worthington, 

[291] 



Williams College and Missions 

Massachusetts. Before entering college he learned in 
Albany the business of carriage making. During this 
time he was very active in religious work, teaching Sun- 
day-school four sessions every Sabbath, some of this 
teaching being done at the poorhouse and at the Col- 
ored Church. He also helped to found the Albany 
Young Men's Christian Association. Having acquired 
a few hundred dollars by his trade and teaching school, 
he entered Williams in 1842, where he spent his Fresh- 
man and Sophomore years, completing his course at 
Union College, where he was graduated in 1845. At 
Williams he was a member of the Mills Theological So- 
ciety and the Philotechnian Society. At Union he 
joined the Adelphics. He studied theology at Prince- 
ton Seminary, taking the full three years' course and 
graduating in 1848. He had been licensed by the Pres- 
bytery of Albany, October 14, 1847, and having decided 
to devote himself to the work of foreign missions, he was 
ordained as an evangelist, by the same Presbytery, 
June 28, 1848. On September 12, of the same year, 
he sailed for Siam, and was stationed at Bangkok. He 
was welcomed by the royal heir, and the two remained 
firm friends for life. Mr. Bush's colleagues at Bang- 
kok were Drs. Lane and Bradley, the latter of whom 
died in the field; Dr. Stephen Mattoon, who was sub- 
sequently President of Biddle University; and Dr. and 
Mrs. Samuel R. House, who brought to this country 
Boon-Itt and another Siamese youth, and who spent 
their last years at Waterford, New York. 

Although Mr. Bush was compelled by ill health to 
return to this country in 1852, after a service of but 
little more than three years, the three years were a pe- 
riod which was marked by great disaster relieved by 
successes of the mission. Soon after the arrival of Mr. 
and Mrs. Bush at Siam, and while they were engaged 
in the acquisition of the language, the Asiatic cholera 

[ 292] 



Biographical Sketches 

came suddenly upon the inhabitants of Bangkok, carry- 
ing away in less than one month 35,000, or about one- 
tenth of the population. For days together, when 
the epidemic was at its height, there were 2000 
deaths a day in the city alone. The mission fami- 
lies, however, were graciously permitted to abide in 
safety. 

On August 29, 1849, the first Presbyterian church 
in Siam was organized, and it soon became necessary 
that the mission should have a home of its own, all pre- 
vious attempts to obtain one having failed. But when 
about this time Prince Chow Fah Mongkut was placed 
on the throne by the concurrent voice of the grand coun- 
cil of princes and nobles, Siam entered upon a new era 
in her history, and the prospects of the missionaries be- 
came bright. As the sovereign was known to be per- 
sonally friendly to the missionaries, they were treated 
with respect by all classes, and their message every- 
where received a cordial hearing. Indeed, on the day of 
coronation, the missionaries had been invited to the pal- 
ace, and assured that they should be unmolested in their 
work. The mission now obtained what it had for many 
years sought in vain, an eligible location, which was now 
tendered them near the center of the city and not far 
below the palace. The following extract from Siam 
and Laos, published by the Presbyterian Board of Pub- 
lication, gives some account of Mr. Bush's work in the 
mission. "As soon as the rains were over and possession 
was given of their new premises, Messrs. Mattoon and 
Bush proceeded to inclose the ground, dig trenches for 
the foundation, purchase rafts of teak-wood logs and 
superintend their sawing by hand into the timber and 
planks required to put up two plain but convenient 
brick dwelling houses. Mr. Bush's experience and 
practical skill were proved of great value. Before the 
rains fairly set in, early in June, one house was finished,. 

[293] 



Williams College and Missions 

and Mrs. Mattoon and family removed into it from the 
floating house on the river, lent to them by a friendly 
prince, which had been their temporary home while the 
new building was going up. They had found it not an 
undesirable residence, though one memorable dark 
night, having been detached from its moorings that it 
might slip away from a fire that was raging on a river 
bank near, through the carelessness of a servant it got 
adrift and carried its inmates off against their will, 
with a rapid tide, seven or eight miles down the river 
before its progress could be averted. The truant dwell- 
ing, however, with all its contents undisturbed, with the 
turn of the tide was brought back to its old moorings 
safe and sound. 

"The other dwelling house was soon completed and 
occupied. The mission having now a home of its own 
and ample room, in October, 1852, a boarding-school 
for Siamo- Chinese boys was opened, and Quakieng, 
who was an experienced Chinese teacher, put in charge, 
— the free tuition the lads would receive half of each 
day in their father-tongue being, as was hoped, an in- 
ducement that would attract such pupils within the 
reach of Christian instruction." 

In December, 1852, Mr. Bush was compelled by ill 
health to return to the United States. Soon after his 
return, he became, April 15, 1853, stated supply of a 
church in Cohoes, New York, and on February 1, 1855, 
he was installed pastor of the same, remaining in this 
pastorate until April 13, 1860. From May 7, 1863, to 
November 18, 1865, he was pastor at Greenbush, New 
York; from June 10, 1868, to February 21, 1871, he 
was stated supply at Green Island, New York; and 
from the latter date till July 22, 1874, he was pastor of 
the same church. He then removed to Waterford, New 
York, where he continued to preach as occasion offered, 
and where he resided until his death. He died suddenly 

[ 291 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

of heart failure, July 15, 1896, in the 79th year of his 
age, leaving a widow and son. 

In the interim between the pastorates at Greenbush 
and Green Island, Dr. Bush visited Europe. In 1874 
he was a Commissioner to the General Assembty at St. 
Louis. 

Maryville College, Tennessee, conferred on him the 
honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1880. 

On June 29, 1848, he was married at Albany, New 
York, to Miss Annabella Fassett, daughter of Timothy 
and Mary Fassett. She died at Bangkok, Siam, July 
23, 1851. He next married, on February 18, 1855, at 
Cohoes, Miss Jane Hall, adopted daughter of Joshua 
Bailey. She survived him, dying at Troy, New York, 
August 4, 1911. 

William Woodbridge Eddy, son of Rev. Dr. 
Chauncey and Julia M. (Woodbridge) Eddy, was born 
at Penn Yan, New York, December 18, 1825. The 
father was settled as a Presbyterian minister in that 
place; the mother was from Hartford, Connecticut. The 
immigrant ancestor of the Eddy family was Rev. John 
Eddy, who came in the ship Mary and John in 1637, 
and settled in Newbury, Massachusetts. Young Eddy 
was reared by parents whose marked characteristics 
were piety and benevolence. He prepared for college 
along with Charles A. Davison, who became his class- 
mate at Williams, under Rev. Dr. Chester of Saratoga 
Springs, New York. He entered college as a Sopho- 
more in 1842. 

The class of 1845 was particularly distinguished for 
furnishing four foreign missionaries and for having for 
one of its members William Dwight Whitney. The 
class has now no living member, the last two surviving 
members — Robert W. Adam and George L. Squier — 
having died in 1913. 

[295] 



Williams College and Missions 

In college, Mr. Eddy was a Philologian and also a 
member of the Ant i- Secret Society, then known as the 
"Social Fraternity." He had a part in the Junior Ex- 
hibition, when his subject was "Man," and at Com- 
mencement, when he spoke on "The Interpretation of 
Nature." 

After graduation, he taught for two years in Jack- 
sonville, Illinois, and then entered Union Theological 
Seminary, where he studied for three years, taking at 
the same time a partial course in medicine. After grad- 
uating from the seminary, he spent about a year and a 
half supplying churches in Jersey City, Newark, Hart- 
ford, Norwich, and Boston. He was ordained by the 
Presbytery of Newark, September 18, 1851. In No- 
vember of the same year he sailed with his wife, under 
appointment as a missionary of the American Board, 
for Syria, where he spent the rest of his life, living four 
years in Aleppo, over twenty at Sidon, and the rest in 
Beirut, rounding out forty-eight years in missionary 
service. Twenty-eight years before his sailing, his par- 
ents had been appointed as missionaries for Syria, but 
had been prevented from carrying out their purpose. 
It was perhaps in answer to their prayers that a son 
went as a substitute to the same field. Both in Aleppo 
and in Sidon Mr. Eddy was associated with Rev. J. E. 
Ford (Williams 1844), who had been one of his college 
mates. These two brethren not only organized the 
churches of Sidon and many surrounding towns, but 
established a seminary for girls and several schools, 
which are still exerting a wide influence in all that 
region. 

In 1870, the Syrian Mission was transferred to the 
Presbyterian Church, and Dr. Eddy wrote concerning 
the transfer to the Missionary Herald: "In name the 
partnership between us will cease. We shall no longer 
be known as missionaries of the American Board, our 

[296] 



Biographical Sketches 

formal relations to the Congregational Churches, to the 
Prudential Committee, to the Secretary, will be dis- 
solved, . . . Yet there will remain that which cannot 
be divided. It is impossible that the partnership be 
wholly dissolved. 

"There are the results of labors hitherto put forth — 
the converts gathered into the churches, the communi- 
ties of Protestants formed, the schools established, the 
books printed, the knowledge diffused, the prejudices 
broken, the broad, deep foundations laid of civilization, 
science, and religion during forty-eight years of labor. 
Will not the partnership of the Board in these results 
still continue? And if it sought to do so, how would 
it be able to release itself from the love and gratitude 
of those enlightened and saved by its instrumentality? 

"There are sheaves garnered in heaven. There are 
martyrs there from Syria, young believers, matured 
saints, teachers, preachers, whose lamps of life were 
lighted through the instrumentality of your society ere 
they entered the dark valley. These gathered fruits, to 
whom, of right, will they still belong? 

"There are precious memories of the dead — of mis- 
sionaries of the American Board who died in Syria or 
who went home to die, — Parsons, Hebard, Dodge, 
Smith, Whiting, DeForest, Ford, and others. Their 
memories are a blessed heritage, their examples a liv- 
ing power, their graves a solemn trust. We that are 
living may sign away our connection with the Board, 
but who is authorized to sign away the connection for 
the dead?" 

In 1878, Dr. Eddy was called from Sidon to 
be an instructor in the Theological Seminary at Beirut, 
and to do pastoral and editorial work in that city. Be- 
sides discharging these various duties he did much 
itinerating and preached every Sunday in the native 
language. 

[297 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

Twice only during the nearly half century of serv- 
ice in a foreign field did Dr. and Mrs. Eddy visit their 
native land, in 1860-63 and 1874-75. 

In a letter addressed to his classmates on the occa- 
sion of the fortieth anniversary of their graduation, Dr. 
Eddy wrote: "My health has been generally pretty 
good. I have enjoyed my work. If I had life to be- 
gin over again, I should choose the same profession, and 
enter into the same service." 

He died at Beirut, Syria, January 26, 1900. Dr. 
H. H. Jessup has written of him: "His bedchamber 
was peace. His mind retained its great vigor and ac- 
tivity to the last. All the members of the mission were 
present at his funeral, having come by sea and land, 
and all, excepting his son and son-in-law, took part, 
with the Syrian pastors, in the funeral service, which 
was attended by a great concourse of natives and for- 
eigners, with students of the college and the American, 
English, and German boarding-schools. The pall- 
bearers were eight American and English young men 
and eight Syrian brethren. The Arabic address was by 
H. H. Jessup and the English by Dr. George A. Ford." 

At the time of the death of Dr. Eddy, the editor of 
the Evangelist wrote: "Dr. and Mrs. Eddy have 
been among our most laborious and useful missionaries. 
For nearly half a century they have stood in their place 
and faithfully done their work, exerting an influence 
which has been widely extended and which has been 
signally owned and greatly blessed of God in the en- 
lightening and salvation of many souls and in the 
organization of agencies and in the founding of institu- 
tions which shall long live to bless that land of such 
special interest to the Christian Church. Mrs. Eddy 
and four children still remain in Syria. What an ag- 
gregate of Christian service and what blessings has this 
one family given to the benighted people of Syria! 

[298] 



Biographical Sketches 

The fidelity and the heroism of such service are an in- 
spiration to all who know the record. Such a noble 
career and work as that of our brother, Dr. Eddy, seem 
to invest life with a new significance and value, open- 
ing and suggesting the larger opportunities and pos- 
sibilities, and commending the missionary field not only 
as the arena of the grandest and noblest heroism, but as 
well the field of the highest type of a truly ennobled 
and consecrated service." 

In 1862 Xew York University conferred on him 
the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity. 

On the 24th of November, 1851, Dr. Eddy married 
Hannah Maria Condit, daughter of Rev. Dr. Robert 
Condit, for a long time pastor of the First Presbyte- 
rian Church in Oswego, Xew York. She was educated 
at Mount Holyoke Seminary, where she was graduated 
in 1846, and was the first graduate from that institu- 
tion to go to Syria. She survived her husband, dying 
April 14, 1904. Dr. H. H. Jessup writes of her: 
"She was a woman of great strength of character, a 
strong will and wonderful energy, which traits are per- 
petuated in her descendants." 

There were born to Dr. and Mrs. Eddy six chil- 
dren. The oldest son, William King, who succeeded 
his father as a missionary at Sidon, died there in 1906. 
The oldest daughter, Mrs. Harriet Mollison Hoskins, 
was, for a time, head of the Female Seminary at Sidon, 
and is now doing missionary work in Beirut. Robert 
Condit Eddy, the only member of the family now in the 
United States, is a practising physician in Xew 
Rochelle, Xew York. Dr. Mary Pierson Eddy is em- 
inent as a missionary physician in Syria, being the first 
woman to secure from the Turkish authorities a diploma 
for the practice of medicine. The youngest daughter 
is Miss Julia Woodbridge Eddy. 

It may be interesting to note in this connection, that 

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Williams College and Missions 

a grandson of Dr. Eddy — William Woodbridge Eddy, 
3d — sailed for Syria September 21, 1911, to become a 
tutor at the college in Beirut. 

Dr. Eddy's principal published work was a Com- 
mentary on the New Testament in Arabic, in five oc- 
tavo volumes, comprising in all 3033 pages, published 
in 1899. 

Justin Wright Parsons, son of Orenzo and Rox- 
ana Burt (Bridgman) Parsons, was of Puritan stock, 
and was born at Westhampton, Massachusetts, April 
26, 1824. Both his parents were descendants of 
Lieutenant William Clark, one of the seven original 
settlers of the town of Northampton, from which 
Westhampton was later set off. He was thus distantly 
related to Azariah Clark (Williams 1805), and the son, 
Azariah Sylvester Clark (Williams 1834), who was one 
of the charter members of the Kappa Alpha Society 
in Williams College. He was a brother of Rev. Eben- 
ezer Burt Parsons, D.D. (Williams 1859), who was for 
many years necrologist of the college and registrar of 
the faculty. Mr. Parsons' father was a woolen manu- 
facturer. The Parsons family have been settled in the 
region of Northampton since the seventeenth century, 
and the name Justin, also, is often met with among its 
members. Soon after his birth the parents of the subject 
of our sketch removed to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 
from which place he entered college, his preparatory 
studies being pursued partly in the Hopkins Academy 
at Hadley, and partly in the public schools of Pitts- 
field. The class secretary wrote of him: "He was 
extremely quiet and unassuming in manners, but of 
firm and decided character, standing undauntedly by 
everything that he regarded as right, faithful to all 
known duties, an industrious and successful scholar, 
and of the most thorough amiability of disposition. 

[300] 





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Biographical Sketches 

Everyone liked him; that he should have an enemy was 
sheer impossibility." The literary annals of his class 
are said to have begim when the Sophomores (class of 
'44) celebrated July 4, 1842, and when, according to 
custom, the Declaration of Independence was read by 
a Freshman, — this year it being J. W. Parsons, "prob- 
ably selected as the smallest man in the class." Mr. 
Parsons was a member of the Philologian and Kappa 
Alpha Societies. At the Adelphic Union Exhibition 
of his Sophomore year, he was one of the speakers, his 
subject being "The Dying Pauper." He was also one 
of the speakers at Commencement, when his subject 
was "Wasted Passion." The class of 1845 was distin- 
guished for giving four members to the foreign mission 
work and for its having as one of its members William 
Dwight Whitney. 

On graduation, Mr. Parsons entered Union Theo- 
logical Seminary, having already decided to be a mis- 
sionary. On graduation from the seminary, he 
preached for a year, 1848-49, at Hancock, Massachu- 
setts. On the 26th of December, 1849, he was ordained 
as a foreign missionary by the Fourth Presbytery of 
New York, and on the 24th of April following, he and 
his wife sailed from Boston for Smyrna, being destined 
for Salonica, which they reached June 24. He labored 
in this place about three years and about the same 
length of time at Smyrna, — at both places among the 
Jews ; till that field was surrendered by the Board to the 
Church of Scotland. In 1856 he was transferred to 
Bardezag, where he spent the rest of his life, with the 
exception of fourteen years (1858-72) spent at Nico- 
media. His field of labor included a large part of 
ancient Bithynia, east from Broosa and north from 
Nicsea. His work was especially that of superintend- 
ing preachers, teachers, and colporteurs, and called for 
almost constant journeyings. In 1872, accompanied 

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Williams College and Missions 

by Mrs. Parsons, he made an extensive tour among the 
missions of Asia Minor. On his return, he removed 
again to Bardezag, where, with the aid of his wife and 
eldest daughter, he opened a school for the training of 
native girls as teachers. The school was very success- 
ful, numbering as many as seventy pupils. He also 
took part in establishing a training school for male 
teachers and preachers. 

The variety of his work called for a knowledge of 
different languages. In his earlier work among the 
Jews, he used the so-called Hebrew- Spanish. While 
the language especially employed by him in preaching 
and teaching was the Armenian, he also freely used the 
Turkish as there was occasion. 

For thirty years of almost incessant toil, broken 
only by two brief visits to his native land, he wrought 
his people lasting good. He was fearless and untiring. 
One wrote of him: "He never spared himself, and 
was always at work. . . . He was often remonstrated 
with for taking so little care of himself, but he could 
never be persuaded there was any real danger in his 
journeys. As for the hardships, he seldom thought of 
them. . . . Brave enough and cool enough to lead an 
army, he carried no weapon with him save the gospel 
of peace, and with this he had successfully disarmed, 
through a long series of years, all the opposition he 
had met." 

Besides the labor of teaching, preaching, journey- 
ing, and superintending he had frequent occasion, par- 
ticularly during the outbreak of cholera in the region, 
to make use of the medical skill he had acquired. His 
unremitting and unsparing exertions and frequent ex- 
posure had begun to undermine his health, and he suf- 
fered much from fever. A few months before his 
death, he wrote: "I am having fever and ague. 
Every other day I shake with cold three hours, burn 

[ 302 ] 






Biographical Sketches 

with fever six hours, and then go into perspiration ana* 
a troubled sleep. The whole region is malarious. I 
am fifty-six years old, and from the experiences of the 
past month feel that it may not take much to carry me 
off. I shall try to be more careful. Heretofore I have 
eaten anything or nothing, slept upon the ground, faced 
cold or storms." 

It is related that on the Sunday before his death, it 
being communion Sunday, he, then being ill with fever, 
expressed the conviction that he might not live long. 
Death came to him sooner than he expected, probably, 
and in a different way. On July 28, 1880, on his re- 
turn toward home from a tour of missionary visitation, 
accompanied by a native helper, he stopped for the 
night, in the open air, on the mountain road between 
Nice and Bardezag. Here they were found asleep by 
three Yuruks, who assailed and killed them for the pur- 
pose of robbing them. Owing to the most energetic 
measures taken by the American Government, the 
Turkish authorities found the murderers, who freely 
confessed their crime, exculpating themselves on the 
ground that the victims were Christians. The leader 
of the murderers was condemned to death by hanging, 
and the other two to fifteen years' imprisonment. 

The scene at the funeral of Dr. Parsons bore strik- 
ing witness to the power of the man and to the success 
of his work. In a region where a few years before the 
missionaries had been hooted and stoned, there was at 
his funeral an outpouring of the whole population. 
The immense crowd listened with tears to the words of 
eulogy spoken by native Christians. The vicar of the 
Armenian Patriarch, a native of Bardezag, was pres- 
ent from Constantinople, and made an address, bear- 
ing testimony, after a friendship of twenty years, to 
his "spotless life." 

Mr. Parsons received the honorary degree of Doc- 

[803 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

tor of Divinity from his Alma Mater in 1880. Soon 
after his death a memorial of him was published by his 
brother, Rev. Dr. E. B. Parsons. 

He was married in Oberlin, Ohio, December 11, 
1849, to Miss Catherine Jennings, only daughter of 
Dr. Isaac and Nancy (Beach) Jennings. Her grand- 
fathers were Isaac Jennings and Abiah (Somers) 
Beach. The Jennings ancestors came from England 
in the early days of the Pilgrims, one brother settling 
in Fairfield, Connecticut. Mrs. Parsons' grandfather, 
Jennings, fought in the War of the Revolution. Her 
grandmother fled with one child from her burning 
dwelling, as did other inhabitants. Mrs. Parsons' fam- 
ily moved from Derby, Connecticut, when she was fif- 
teen years old, to Oberlim She was a graduate 
of Oberlin College in the class of 1844, being one of the 
first young women to take the full classical course at 
that institution. She, with four children, survived her 
husband. The oldest child, Electa Clark, born at 
Salonica, for some time carried on with her mother, the 
school for girls at Nicomedia. On August 18, 1886, 
she was married at Adabazar, Turkey, to Charles W. 
Riggs of Aintab, Central Turkey. The second, 
Louisa Shepard, born at Smyrna, married in 1873 
Rev. Albert Whiting (Union College 1869), of the 
Presbyterian mission in China, who died in April, 1878, 
from a fever contracted while he was carrying food to 
the suffering people during a time of famine in that 
country. Mrs. Whiting continued for a time the work 
in which her husband had been engaged, and in 1883 
was married again to Rev. Robert E. Abbey (Wooster 
University 1879), of the same mission. The third 
child, a son, Frederick Jennings, born at Nicomedia, 
was graduated with distinguished honor at Williams 
in 1881. He pursued here a post-graduate course in 
mathematics and astronomy, serving at the same time 

[ 304] 



Biographical Sketches 

as instructor in the college, and took the degree of Doc- 
tor of Philosophy in 1884. He later pursued his stud- 
ies in Germany, and became an electrical engineer with 
residence in Paris. The fourth child, Elizabeth Cor- 
nelia, born in Nicomedia, is engaged in decorative 
art. 

Mrs. Parsons continued in the mission field, until 
October 15, 1887, when she was released. She was re- 
appointed February 7, 1888. She visited the United 
States in 1891, and returned the following year, arriv- 
ing at Constantinople August 2. She returned finally 
to the United States in 1897, making her residence in 
Cleveland, Ohio, where she died June, 1914. 

Hyman Augustine Wilder was a native of Ver- 
mont, having been born at Cornwall, in that State, Feb- 
ruary 17, 1822. He was the son of Ora and Sally 
(Wheelock) Wilder, and grandson of Daniel and 
Polly (Gould) Wilder. His father, who was a farmer, 
was a man of marked energy and strength, and a strict 
observer of religious duties. This last characteristic 
made him familiar with Bible truth. His love of ad- 
venture and the frequent change of habitation made 
him familiar with new surroundings and encouraged in 
his family adaptability to circumstances. The mother, 
also, was a woman of great energy and strength of 
character, in whose nature, along with love of justice, 
were combined imagination and a sense of humor. She 
was fond of study and had a gift for scientific inven- 
tion. The son had the usual training of a New Eng- 
land farmer's boy, with such opportunities for schooling 
as other duties would allow. The circumstances and 
influences of his home life all tended to develop self- 
reliance. 

The family moved to Millville, Orleans County, 
New York, when the son was still young, and his prep- 

[ 305 J 



Williams College and Missions 

aration for college was obtained in Gaines and Millville 
Academies. He paid his own way, chiefly by teach- 
ing, not only through the academy but in college, 
where he was a faithful and assiduous student, whose 
independence, singleness of purpose, and Christian 
character won the respect of his classmates. In college 
he was a member of the Mills Theological Society. 

At an early age he had resolved to devote himself 
to the ministry, and on graduation from college, he 
entered the seminary at East Windsor, Connecticut, 
from which he was graduated in 1848. He was or- 
dained at Adams, Massachusetts, February 29, 1849, 
and on April 7 sailed from Boston, with his wife, as 
missionary of the American Board to the Zulus in 
South Africa. He arrived at Cape Town, June 13, 
and at Port Natal July 16. He was asked by the mis- 
sion to assume, temporarily, the direction of the press 
at Umbilo. In February, 1851, he was requested by 
his brethren to commence a new station at Umtwalume, 
which is about ninety miles from Natal Harbor. This 
became his home during the period of his missionary 
service. In one of his earlier letters he has given an 
interesting description of the scenery at his new station. 
"The near approach to my house," he writes, "is over 
a low ridge of hills, from which the view is singularly 
beautiful and grand. At our feet lies the valley or 
plain, a mile and a half long, covered with perpetual 
verdure, and always smiling under the sun and under 
the clouds. Just beyond sparkle and sing the sweet 
waters of the river ; and beyond this rise dark and lofty 
mountains, covered with heath for the most part; but 
here and there huge crags jut out over the deep ravines, 
where baboons, unmolested by man, find a home. At 
a distance of three miles we discover a mountain sev- 
ered from its fellows, called by the natives Umsikazi, 
rising far above all others, and terminating in a hori- 

[30G] 



Biographical Sketches 

zontal table-land some two miles square. Its sides for 
1000 feet are as perpendicular and regular as if they 
were chiselled by the statuary. Near it shoot up sharp 
pinnacles of rock, vainly aspiring to reach its height." 

In the field which came under Mr. Wilder' s care 
and lay within a circuit of about twelve miles, there 
were nearly 200 kraals with a population of nearly 
3000. From this station four tribes were easily 
accessible. 

Here he had to begin his work from the very foun- 
dation. Using the canvas that covered the wagon for 
a shelter by night and a sitting-room by day, he pro- 
vided a temporary dwelling whose walls were made of 
sticks and mud and whose roof was thatched with grass. 
Pie then proceeded to erect more stable structures, and 
with his own hands, with such help as he could get from 
the natives, he prepared and put together both the 
brick and the wood of a house, and subsequently of a 
church and a schoolhouse. A few years later he wrote 
of this experience: "Little like a clergyman did the mis- 
sionary appear as, dressed in frock, and covered from 
head to foot with clay, he moulded the bricks, or used 
the saw, plane, and the trowel; but very thankful and 
satisfied he was, when, as the new year of 1852 dawned, 
he was in a comfortable dwelling, which bids fair to 
stand long after he is dead. It is only right to say, 
however, that the brick were in part made by a white 
man, and burned and laid into walls by him." All this, 
however, he considered as part of his distinctive work 
as a missionary, believing, as he did, that the people 
could more easily be Christianized by being made ac- 
quainted with the arts of civilization. Then he made 
it his business to work with the people in order to im- 
press them with the sense of the dignity of labor, and 
by precept and example to teach them the arts of civ- 
ilized life. He learned trades before strange to him- 

[307] 



Williams College and Missions 

self, in order to teach them to his people ; and the suc- 
cess which attended his efforts in these directions also 
appeared in his building up a self-supporting church. 
The practical character of the man and his influence 
commended themselves to the British authorities of the 
country, from whom he was very successful in obtain- 
ing funds for the support of the mission schools. 

Though a seminary and day schools had been es- 
tablished in the earlier years of this mission, it was six 
years before there appeared the first inquirer, and ten 
years before a little church of nine members was 
formed. But from this time on Mr. Wilder's letters 
tell of progress and success ; of the erection of a build- 
ing for the training school at Amanzimtoti; of a re- 
vival with 100 conversions; of accessions to the church 
and the completion of a new chapel of brick. A most 
interesting account of this growth is given by Mr. 
Wilder in the Missionary Herald for 1868. Whether 
as preacher, or teacher in the schools, or making explor- 
ing tours, or by practical illustrations teaching the na- 
tives the rudiments of civilization, he was, for twenty- 
eight years, with the interruption of a single visit to this 
country, ever the zealous, indefatigable, efficient worker. 
On his return to his field in 1870 after a visit to this 
country, he assumed, temporarily, in addition to the 
care of his own station, the oversight of two others, and 
in 1875 he went to Amanzimtoti as substitute for an- 
other in the training school, where he had previously 
taught for a time. These various cares had already 
begun to undermine even his rugged constitution, when, 
in August of that year, on a vacation trip to the inte- 
rior, undertaken with reference to selecting a site for 
a new station, he suffered from a severe attack of dys- 
entery. Though he was able to return to his field, he 
was soon obliged to try a residence of some months at 
the Cape. He once more returned to work, but a re- 

[ 308 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

lapse followed, and by the advice of physicians and his 
colleagues, he returned to this country, arriving in Bos- 
ton January, 1877. After four months of critical ill- 
ness, his health began to mend. During the summer 
he resided at Waverley, Massachusetts. At the begin- 
ning of September he removed to Hartford, Con- 
necticut, to be near his son, who had recently been 
graduated from Williams and was now in the Hartford 
Theological Seminary. But soon after his arrival, he 
had a sudden relapse, and died September 7, 1877, aged 
55 years. 

An excellent sketch of Mr. Wilder's life and char- 
acter was prepared for the history of the class by the 
class secretary, — Professor William Dwight Whitney. 
The following extract is from that sketch: "He was 
at the Williams Commencement in '68, and then and 
later saw many of his classmates. One of them writes 
(expressing the sentiments of all) : T was much im- 
pressed with the growth he had made since our college 
days, the breadth of his views, and his mental grasp. 
Though having lived for nearly a generation in the 
wilds of Africa, his time constantly occupied by press- 
ing duties and cares, he seemed to be fully posted in the 
progress of the whole world, and to have progressed 
with it. He preached and lectured several times in our 
city, and always exerted a profound influence upon his 
hearers. He was exceedingly genial in private inter- 
course, full of humor, and a good story-teller. He pos- 
sessed an unusual degree of common sense and tact, 
and was practical in all his ways; and it seems to me 
that this was in no small degree the secret of his large 
success as a missionary. His wife was a fit helpmeet 
for such a man.' Few men have fallen into places so 
well suited to their nature, and have made those places 
so profitable and educating, to themselves as well as 
to others." A writer in the Missionary Review for 

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Williams College and Missions 

January, 1878, gives the following testimony: "He 
was an able and faithful missionary for twenty-eight 
years, with but one visit, meanwhile, to his native land. 
Of quick perception, rare enthusiasm and versatility, 
and thoroughly consecrated to the service of Christ 
among the Zulus, he proved a very able and efficient 
worker." 

The following extract is from a letter, dated July 
3, 1912, of Rev. Ownslow Carlton, who is now in 
charge of the work and station founded by Mr. Wilder, 
and on which his son, Rev. Dr. G. A. Wilder, labored 
for ten years. The letter is addressed to the son. 
"Your remarks about Umtwalume are very interest- 
ing. I do not think you need to be worried about the 
moral tone of that church or station. In my opinion 
it is by far the best station in my district, and there I 
have met the very finest men I have ever seen among 
natives. The church is a real live one and doing good 
work. All my head stations are now entirely self-sup- 
porting, — Ifafa, Amahlongwa, Umzumbe, and Umt- 
walume, and subscribe regularly to the Abaisitupa. 
The moral tone of Ifafa is nothing to boast of, but I 
hope that my living here will help matters. I might 
say that Robert Ncobo [he was baptized by G. A. 
Wilder, and his father by H. A. Wilder], who is still 
in the Theological School at Impolweni, has been called 
to the Umtwalume Church, and I think their choice is 
a good one, as he is really a fine fellow and am sure he 
will do a good work there. 

"I most sincerely hope that you will be able to visit 
Umtwalume, this year, and if you do you will get a 
grand welcome from the people. Your father's photo 
is still up in the church and I am always being referred 
to you as an authority on various matters." 

As Mr. Wilder had achieved success as a teacher 
before going to Natal, so, aside from his special services 

[810] 



Biographical Sketches 

as a missionary, he became prominent as a lecturer to 
the white colonists on the subjects of astronomy, chem- 
istry, and mineralogy. 

Mr. Wilder was married February 21, 1849, to Miss 
Abbie Temperance Linsley, daughter of Horace and 
Betsey (Samson) Linsley, of Cornwall, Vermont, and 
granddaughter of Joel and Livinia (Gilbert) Linsley. 
She studied at Mount Holyoke Seminary. Mrs. 
Wilder died March 27, 1912, at the age of 90, at the 
home of her daughter, Mrs. George H. Gutter son, in 
Winchester, Massachusetts, having spent about forty 
years in the mission field in Natal. 

Their children were one daughter, Emma Samson 
Wilder, and one son, George Albert Wilder. The 
daughter was married in September, 1878, to Rev. 
George H. Gutterson, who after serving as a mission- 
ary for many years in India returned to this country 
and is now District Secretary of the American Mis- 
sionary Association. Mr. Gutterson received the hon- 
orary degree of Master of Arts from this college in 
1891 and had a son who was graduated here in 1904. 
Rev. Dr. George Albert Wilder, also a missionary in 
South Africa, was graduated here in 1877, and re- 
ceived the degree of Doctor of Divinity from his Alma 
Mater in 1904. His son was graduated here in 1907. 

The following letter written by Dr. George A. 
Wilder contains so many additional and interesting 
facts concerning his father that it properly claims 
place here. 

"My father was a man of great independence of 
thought and character. A diligent searcher after 
truth and a lover of justice, following these he did not 
ask whither they might lead him. Hating mere con- 
ventionalities, he was a severe critic, laying bare every 
sham. In spite of the fact that my father at times 
opposed unsparingly both the Colonists and the Gov- 

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Williams College and Missions 

ernment, each admired and feared him. The late Sir 
Theophilus Shepstone was heard to remark that he 
always, if possible, avoided meeting Mr. Wilder, for 
Mr. Wilder generally gave him a lot of trouble with his 
criticisms of the Government's management of the na- 
tive black people. However, it was this same Natal 
Government which supplied my father with tools, in- 
cluding a flfteen-horse-power steam engine with which 
to assist him in carrying on his industrial works for the 
betterment of the same blacks. My father and Rev. 
W. M. Mellen were the pioneers in teaching the Zulu 
converts industries. The Colonists also were ever 
ready to invite my father to deliver to their audi- 
ences lectures on astronomy, chemistry, geology, 
Yankee Notions, and what not. And as a preacher 
he was eagerly sought after — and all in all no man in 
the Zulu Mission has ever been more acceptable in the 
pulpit or on the lecture platform than was my father. 
"It was only by keeping in touch with scientific lit- 
erature that he was able to hold such a position. The 
Independent , Scientific American, Harper s Weekly 
and the LittelVs Living Age were always in our home 
as far back as my recollections go. My father told me 
one day, shortly before his death, that a man should 
never cease to study the subjects which he had investi- 
gated while in college. And so comprehensive and 
practical was his idea of a college education, that he said 
to me once after my graduation, when I expressed a 
doubt of my being able to manufacture trunks out of 
some boards which he had brought from Cape Town 
[camphor wood boards from a tree planted by Gov- 
ernor Van Rebeck (Jan Van Reibeek), in the middle 
of the seventeenth century, 1652], 'My son, ... a 
college graduate who can not make a trunk ought to 
be whipped.' I hardly need to add that although I 
was greatly grieved at the remark, I made the four 

[312] 



Biographical Sketches 

trunks then and there, 1877, and these same trunks are 
still in use, 1912. But it was my father and not 
Williams that I had to thank for being able to make 
the trunks. 

"Perhaps one of my father's strong points was his 
ability to make the most unpromising material pro- 
duce results. Indeed he has a record of being a most 
successful teacher, in which he had much training even 
before he went to Africa, as he paid most of his college 
bills by teaching. While in this country on his first 
vacation he was offered the principalship of a large 
High School in Michigan. 

"Father was more interested in study of the 'Nat- 
ural Sciences,' as they used to be called in his day, 
than in the study of Philosophy and Religion. With a 
decidedly inventive mind he turned his attention to ex- 
periments, and was the first to suggest the use of rub- 
ber washers to steady heavy machinery. For this sug- 
gestion he received a small sum, I think $400. He in- 
vented the unleakable inkstand; namely an inverted 
hollow cone set into another cylindrical receptacle. It 
is now universally used in different forms. He made 
nothing on this idea, as it was taken from him and pat- 
ented by another man. He invented the idea of using 
nitro-glycerine as an explosive, and actually used it in 
bursting open rocks, before Nobel came forward. 
This last combination he discovered when working with 
a young Colonist in chemistry. Many young Colo- 
nists, from contact with my father, were stimulated 
to get an education. He was more than ready to 
help any young man or woman who wished to learn 
something. 

"Not willing that my sister and self should miss 
entirely an elementary school training, he hired a cul- 
tured English lady to teach us. We were 100 miles 
away from any English school. Several children of 

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Williams College and Missions 

neighboring Colonists were sent to our teacher, all of 
whom were boarded in our family. My father and my 
mother could neither of them sing, play or sketch; we 
were compelled to practice at each. At night my 
father read aloud to us all from the best literature and 
taught us to play checkers and chess; the latter game 
is the only study I made much progress in. In the 
school I was always at the foot, and this position hap- 
pened to be near the outside door. When the teacher 
upbraided me for always remaining at the foot I replied 
that I was there because from there I could get out of 
school first. That was all I appreciated my father's 
efforts at giving me an education. He presented me 
on one of my birthdays with a beautifully built turning 
lathe (foot power), all of which he had made with his 
own hands, even to the iron chuck and the steel chisels. 
I scarcely used it a dozen times. He also secured for 
me a beautiful model steam engine, in which I took no 
interest. I must have been a sore disappointment to 
him. Nevertheless, I know that to him I am mostly 
indebted for what little knowledge I possess. My 
father's station was almost like a small university; an 
extensive experiment station. In his effort to draw 
the heathen into a higher, more productive life, he tried 
almost every thing he could get his hands on. When 
I was the merest child, I remember a host of naked sav- 
ages engaged in digging a great ditch a half a mile in 
length through which my father was to draw the stream 
near our home and make it turn a great waterwheel of 
his own construction, which turned the huge punched- 
tin covered drums, which in their turn scraped the roots 
of the arrowroot plant. And I well remember the day 
when the floods came and swept away the whole outfit, 
— mill, trench, and all; but not until the natives had 
made enough to start to erect the first church on the 
place. Next cotton planting was taken up soon after 

[314] 



Biographical Sketches 

the Sea-Island seed became famous and while the South- 
ern cotton was next to nil because of the War of the 
Rebellion. I earned my first pennies picking cotton. 
On the station, father had set up one of the first, if not 
the very first, cotton gin introduced into South Africa. 
This with the circular saw and the stone grist-mill were 
run by the engine which the Government gave to 
the station. I early had to learn much about the care 
of the engine and understood much about all the other 
machinery. Brick-making and building father's men 
had much to do with. His boys were employed in sev- 
eral places to make slop-bricks. He brought marble 
from thirty miles away and burned it in a kiln and used 
the slaked lime for mortar in putting up the last church 
he erected. Charcoal-making was carried on system- 
atically as much charcoal was consumed in one way and 
another on the place. Then there was the forge where 
a man was sawing up tusks of ivory. At another shed 
a white man was building a wagon wheel, and soon we 
had a journey in our own wagon made altogether on 
the premises. I remember that this vehicle had oil- 
cups screwed to the hubs of the wheels, a device only 
lately at that time invented if I am not mistaken. I 
mention this small matter to illustrate how sure father 
was to have everything up to date. In 1863, or '64, 
he was running a camera obscura, and I have a photo 
of my sister and self taken in 1864. I well recall how 
I had to work at washing the prints, and how father's 
hands were stained with the nitrate of silver which I 
suppose he used in developing. 

"About this time I remember seeing one of the na- 
tive boys employed mending shoes, and presently I had 
a pair made to my measure. I did not know when 
father taught this youth to make shoes. It was this 
same young native whom the Governor of Natal saw 
making a pair of boots. When the surprised Governor 

[315] 



Williams College and Missions 

asked my father who taught the man to make boots, he 
replied that he taught him himself. Whereupon his 
Excellency inquired if my father was a cobbler. 'No/ 
my father replied, 'I simply took one of my old boots 
and first analyzed it, and put it together again. I 
made patterns from the analyzed parts, and cutting out 
new parts, had the lad sew them together, and so the 
new boot-making received a start, although I know 
nothing about the cobbler's business.' The Governor 
was so much interested that he was instrumental in 
sending a portable steam-engine to my father to use 
in the station. 

"The silkworm industry was next taken up and the 
native school children were taught to raise the mulberry 
leaves and to feed the worms, and we white children 
learned to unwind the silk. Agriculture and arbor 
culture also received attention. And in the year 1870, 
on his return from America, he induced the natives to 
raise sugar-cane, and before three years there were 
three sugar mills at work on three stations — all owned 
by the natives. All these, however, did not survive 
after my father left Africa, for not one of the other 
missionaries was sympathetic with his plans and proj- 
ects, and I think they could not have carried them on 
had they been desirous to do so. The natives who 
came under father's instruction and influence show 
markedly the uplifting influence he had upon them. 
We see that his name has reached into the interior of 
South Africa. (See the appreciation of my work 
given by the natives at Chikore, one thousand miles 
north of the field in which my father labored. ) It may 
be remarked that the various industries which my father 
taught to the natives in Natal are many of them at 
least not carried on by the natives. Even so. Father 
was a man before his day. The natives were too un- 
civilized to appreciate and to carry on his ideas inde- 

[316] 



Biographical Sketches 

pendently of his guidance. They were not then ad- 
vanced enough to cooperate peaceably. All the same 
the general influence he had over them through all these 
industrial efforts is immense today even upon their 
children. 

"None of these efforts were for my good directly, 
but I feel that I learned more practical knowledge in 
the half a dozen years I was at home on the Umtwalume 
Mission Station, between the ages of six and twelve, 
than during almost all the rest of my life. 

"How my father accomplished all this on his small 
salary is a wonder to me, especially as not only were 
all but one of his brethren in the field opposed to him, 
but also the American Board officials, and many of its 
constituency. Father was carrying out General Arm- 
strong's ideas in Africa while the General was still a 
little boy in the Sandwich Islands. 

"Perhaps you are aware that it was my father who 
sent the first seed of the sorghum to America; also the 
first seed of the Kaffir corn so-called, both of which 
plants have proved such a boon to the American people 
of the Middle West. He sent the seed to Professor 
Albert Hopkins, his warm friend, who sent it on to the 
Smithsonian Institute, Washington." 



CLASS OF 1846 
Frederick Humphrey Brewster was born in 
Waterloo, Seneca County, New York, February 20, 
1822. He entered college as a Sophomore in 1843, 
from Canaan, Michigan. He became a member of the 
Philotechnian Society and of the Mills Theological 
Society. He was graduated with the appointment of 
an Oration, and was one of the speakers at Commence- 
ment, his subject being "Evangelical Missions." The 
year 1850-51 he spent at Andover in the study of the- 

[317] 



Williams College and Missions 

ology, and then studied for a time at the Theological 
Institute of Connecticut. He was ordained at Enfield, 
Connecticut, February 25, 1852, and on the 21st of 
July following, he and his wife, Mrs. Mary G. Brews- 
ter, of Windham, Connecticut, under appointment of 
the American Board, sailed in the ship Siam, Captain 
Ring, in the expectation of joining the Canton Mis- 
sion. After a passage which was long, though "on the 
whole pleasant," they arrived safely at Hong Kong on 
December 29, and at Canton on January 1. Mr. 
Brewster died of smallpox at Canton, January 29, 
1853, just a month after reaching the country. A let- 
ter from Mr. S. Wells Williams, printed in the Mis- 
sionary Herald for June, 1853, gives an account of the 
sickness and death of Mr. Brewster. The following 
extract is from that letter: "In view of this dispensa- 
tion of God to us as a mission, as Christians engaged 
in making known Christ to the Chinese, we can only 
say, 'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; 
blessed be the name of the Lord.' We had hoped for 
much pleasant intercourse with this brother; and he 
was happy to reach his allotted port, after some five 
years of preparation for missionary work. He was in 
Canton just four weeks; and the little which we saw 
of him led us to rejoice in the prospect of having such 
a coadjutor. But he has gone to a higher seat, and the 
record of his desire to do good to this ignorant people 
must be looked for on his gravestone. He lies among 
the hills of China; and when his mouldering dust is 
called to rise, it will meet many thousands and myriads 
of redeemed sinners from among the millions of this 
Empire; and he will rejoice with them to sit down at 
the marriage supper of the Lamb." 

On April 13, 1852, Mr. Brewster married Miss 
Mary Gray Byrne, who was born in Windham, Con- 
necticut. After the death of Mr. Brewster, she re- 

[318] 



Biog?°aphical Sketches 

mained and labored in connection with the mission 
until her marriage, December 19, 1854, to Rev. Charles 
Finney Preston of the Presbyterian Board, when her 
connection with the American Board ceased. After 
the death of Mr. Preston in 1877, she returned to the 
United States, and soon afterwards took charge of the 
Women's Home for Chinese Women and Girls in San 
Francisco, California. 

George Whitefield Coan was born in Byron, 
New York, December 30, 1817, the son of Ezra and 
Fannie Maria (Hull) Coan, and grandson of Gay lord 
Coan. The father was a merchant. The son entered 
college as a Sophomore in 1843, and became a member 
of the Mills Theological Society and of the Philotech- 
nian Society. He was one of the speakers at Com- 
mencement, when he delivered an oration on " Rela- 
tions." After graduation he entered Union Theologi- 
cal Seminary, from which he was graduated in 1849. 
He was ordained by the Presbytery of Genesee, June 
6 of the same year, and on the 18th of that month, he 
with his wife embarked from Boston for Smyrna, be- 
ing under the appointment of the American Board to 
go to Urumia, Persia, where he arrived October 13. 
The mission to the Nestorians, among whom he was to 
labor, had been commenced in 1833, the attention of 
the Board having been directed to that field by the facts 
brought to light by Messrs. Smith and Dwight. Rev. 
Justin Perkins, then a tutor in Amherst College, was 
the first missionary appointed to that people. In their 
instructions to Mr. Perkins, the Prudential Committee 
said: "Your first duty among the Nestorians will be 
to cultivate an intimate acquaintance with the religious 
opinions and sentiments of the Nestorians. . . . 
Whether you will be able at present, with a due regard 
for personal safety, to penetrate the Kurdish Moun- 

[819] 



Williams College and Missions 

tains, and visit the Nestorian Patriarch, is very doubt- 
ful. But the journey should be performed as soon as 
may be, lest interested and perverse men should prej- 
udice his mind against you." The Committee also 
stated that the main object of the missionaries "would 
be to enable the Nestorian Church, through the grace 
of God, to exert a commanding influence in the regen- 
eration of Asia." 

The province of Urumia is situated in the north- 
western part of modern Persia, being bounded on the 
west by a chain of snow-covered mountains, and on the 
east by a beautiful lake, eight miles long and thirty 
broad. The territory of the Nestorians, who numbered 
about 150,000, extended from Lake Urumia 300 miles 
westward to the Tigris, and 200 miles from north to 
south, embracing rugged mountain ranges and several 
beautiful and fertile plains. 

When Mr. and Mrs. Coan joined the mission in 
1849, the mission was enjoying a second revival. In 
the period of fifteen years since the arrival of Mr. Per- 
kins there had been established a male and a female 
seminary, and thirty-two village schools with 600 pu- 
pils. Soon after his arrival, Mr. Coan took the super- 
vision of the village schools and reported an eager 
desire among the people to learn to read. He was soon 
transferred from the village school department to the 
seminary, and according to that arrangement, spent 
four days a week at Seir. In a letter of February 22, 
1851, he gives an interesting account of a revival in 
the seminaries, the third revival in three successive 
years. The genuineness of the work is indicated by this 
extract from Mr. Coan's letter: "Having occasion 
sometimes to pass in the vicinity of the students' pray- 
ing closets, I have been struck with the apparently sub- 
dued and chastened spirit of their devotions. Instead 
of loud and boisterous demonstrations, their quiet and 

[320] 



Biographical Sketches 

suppressed tones have rather indicated a desire to un- 
burden the soul before God in secret places." Mr. 
Coan's distinctive department, however, was field work, 
both among the villages of Kurdistan and those of the 
plain, where he was ever the earnest, laborious preacher 
of the Word, and bishop of the infant churches. In 
August, 1851, accompanied by three native helpers, he 
set out upon a long excursion into Central Kurdistan, 
when they entered between fifty and sixty villages and 
preached the gospel to more than 4000 persons, some 
of the ground having never before been visited by a 
missionary. The winter of 1851-52 Mr. and Mrs. Coan 
and Mr. Rhea spent in Gawar for the purpose of estab- 
lishing a station there. The village selected for the 
station was Memikan, which lay on the southwest base 
of the great Jeloo Mountains, was central, and was also 
the home of Deacon Tamo. Of their first experience 
there, Mr. Coan wrote: "Our chests have served for a 
bedstead at night and a table by day ; but we never slept 
more sweetly or ate with more cheerful hearts than now. 
Our floor is the earth, and our carpeting is hay, but we 
hope to be more comfortable soon in some of these re- 
spects. The houses of Gawar are burrows in the earth, 
with a hole overhead to admit the ingress of light and 
egress of smoke, where horses, cattle, sheep, goats, hens, 
vermin, men, women, and children are the disputants 
for the territory. We have succeeded in obtaining a 
place under Deacon Tamo's roof, shut off from the 
other occupants of the house, where we hope to be quite 
comfortable." Added to other discomforts was the se- 
verity of the winter, where the thermometer went 23° 
below zero and the snow lay four or five feet deep. 

Of the success of the work there Dr. Anderson 
writes: "Mrs. Coan had a school for the mothers and 
daughters of the village, who came barefooted through 
the snow day after day, the mothers bringing their chil- 

[821] 



Williams College and Missions 

dren on their backs. All the young men and all the 
boys of suitable age learned to read the gospel, and the 
fathers came to the school-room every Saturday, to lis- 
ten while the scholars were learning their Sabbath- 
school lessons. Thirty or forty were accustomed to 
assemble every night to hear the Word of God ex- 
pounded, and all attended on the services of the Sab- 
bath. Deacon Tamo preached in the surrounding 
villages. Though threatened at times, he encountered 
no active opposition." While Mr. Coan was an elo- 
quent and impressive speaker, gifted with a ready ut- 
terance and possessed of an unusually correct 
knowledge of the Syriac language, and thus exercised a 
wide influence by his preaching, he placed great em- 
phasis upon the work done in the schools. Of the 
village schools, seventy-two were kept up through the 
winter of 1854-55 and the following winter fifty- 
eight were reported, with 1100 pupils. It was the dis- 
tinct purpose of Mr. Coan to make all these schools 
subservient to the spread of the gospel, his object be- 
ing not so much instruction in the sciences as teaching 
the pupils how to read and understand the Scriptures. 
Accordingly, they had Sabbath-school instruction and 
weekly recitations of the Scriptures. The schools were 
the centers where the people gathered to listen to the 
more formal preaching of the Word. Furthermore, the 
young men from the male seminary were accustomed 
to go forth, two and two, through the villages preach- 
ing the gospel. As was to be expected, labors charac- 
terized by such an evangelistic spirit were followed by 
frequent revivals and by encouraging additions to the 
church. In 1868 Mr. Coan reported that in the year 
then closing there had been added to the company of 
believers 100 in the whole field, that the word of God 
had been regularly preached in seventy-eight places, 
and that the average of the congregations had 

[322] 



Biographical Sketches 

amounted, in the aggregate, to about 3000. Of course 
these labors were performed not without great and se- 
rious hindrances. The letters from the field speak of 
sorrows and anxieties as well as of joys. War and pes- 
tilence, opposition by the Government, oppression by 
the Kurds, persecution, the death or removal of mem- 
bers of the mission, are topics often touched upon in 
the yearly reports. 

In 1870 the mission decided that it was a duty to 
embrace in their efforts the Armenians and Mussulman 
sects of Central Persia by establishing a station at 
Hamadan (the ancient Ecbatana). The Board ap- 
proved of the plan and the mission became known as 
the "Mission to Persia." In the assignment of labors 
among the members of the mission, Mr. Coan was given 
the care of the press, the editing of the Rays of Light, 
the duties of treasurer, the oversight of the city church 
and of two out-stations. 

In the autumn of this year the Mission to Persia 
was transferred to the care of the Presbyterian Board, 
the Armenian work in the northern portion of the field 
being reserved by the American Board. 

Mr. Coan was enabled to labor on for four years 
more, till 1874, when physical infirmity, the burdens of 
which he had borne for years, compelled his return to 
this country. Including the years 1862-64, which he 
had spent in this country in the recruiting of his health 
and in the service of the Board, he had spent a quarter 
of a century of laborious and fruitful service in the 
cause of missions. After his return to the United 
States he spent the remaining years of his life at Niles, 
Michigan, and Wooster, Ohio. These years, also, de- 
voted as they were to earnest efforts to interest the 
churches more deeply in the cause of missions, bore 
witness to his zeal in his chosen work. 

He died at Wooster, December 21, 1879, aged 62. 

[323 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

In recognition of his ability and faithful service 
Wooster University conferred on him the honorary de- 
gree of Doctor of Divinity in 1878. 

On May 27, 1849, he was married in Hudson, New 
York, to Mrs. Sarah (Power) Kip of Albany, who sur- 
vived him. 

Of six children born to them, there is but one sur- 
viving, — Rev. Frederick Gaylord Coan, D.D., a grad- 
uate of Wooster University in the class of 1882 and 
of Princeton Theological Seminary, who is a Presby- 
terian missionary, located at Urumia, Persia. 

Marshall Danforth Sanders was born in Wil- 
liamstown, Massachusetts, July 3, 1823. He was the 
son of Anthony and Celinda (Brown) Sanders and the 
grandson of Oliver and Mary (Pollock) Sanders and 
of Esik and Mary (Sayles) Brown. Mr. Sanders was 
descended from one of four brothers who came from 
Europe and settled in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 
the brother who was the ancestor of this branch of the 
family subsequently going to Rhode Island. 

The father of the subject of this sketch, after teach- 
ing school for several years, became a farmer. He was 
a very religious man and very active in church work, 
maintaining a district prayer meeting all his life. 

The son pursued his preparatory studies in Wil- 
liamstown and entered his class at the beginning of 
Freshman year. He belonged to a class nine of whose 
members became ministers of the gospel, three of them 
going as missionaries to foreign fields. One of his col- 
lege mates was William D wight Whitney. Mr. San- 
ders was a member of the Mills Theological Society and 
of the Philologian Society. He had a part in the Com- 
mencement exercises at graduation, delivering an ora- 
tion on the subject "Sympathy." After graduating, 
he taught for two years at Social Circle and Athens, 

[324] 



Biographical Sketches 

Georgia, and then studied theology at Auburn Semi- 
nary, from which he was graduated in 1851. He was 
soon after ordained at Peru, Massachusetts, and on Oc- 
tober 31, of the same year, he with his wife sailed from 
Boston for the Ceylon Mission, under appointment of 
the American Board, arriving at Madras on February 
21, and at Ceylon, March 12. He was at first stationed 
at Batticotta, where he had charge of the seminary. 
From the very first Mr. Sanders sought to produce in 
his pupils a high standard of scholarship and well-estab- 
lished Christian character. As he selected for his first 
class only thirty-four out of eighty candidates, he could 
report, at the end of the year, that a good degree of tal- 
ent had been exhibited, while the church members had 
labored for the spiritual good of the new class. In 
1853, in accordance with a vote of the Ceylon Mission, 
he took charge of Chavakachcherri, which is located in 
the southern central part of Jaffna. The reports of this 
year speak of a new house of worship, of preaching and 
efforts made in the cause of temperance, of a Sabbath- 
school with an average attendance of 180 boys and sixty 
girls, besides a class of young men. Compelled to leave 
Chavakachcherri by reason of ill health, he was for a 
time at Tellippallai (Tillipalli) . Subsequently, in ad- 
dition to Batticotta, he had charge of Panditeripo and 
the islands. Whenever on account of the needs of the 
Board or the sickness of colleagues the missionary 
strength was reduced, Mr. Sanders stood ever ready to 
assume more than his share of extra work. His pub- 
lished reports of the condition of the various parts of 
the field under his care are models of completeness and 
clearness. 

In 1858 the mission made a new departure in the 
matter of education. A committee, of which Mr. San- 
ders was a member, was appointed to report on the 
formation and plan of a school for the training of mis- 

P325 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

sion helpers. The report of the committee was adopted, 
and the buildings of the seminary at Batticotta, which 
had been temporarily suspended three years before, 
were repaired and on the 29th of March the "Training 
and Theological Institution" was opened, and the 
young men (fourteen in number) selected by the mis- 
sion to enter the school commenced their studies under 
the care of Mr. Sanders as principal. In carrying out 
the design of the school, to train pious natives for pas- 
tors and helpers, the Tamil language was the means of 
instruction. The principalship of this school and other 
educational matters of the mission were henceforth to 
occupy a large part of Mr. Sanders' time, while preach- 
ing, pastoral duties, and touring were still continued. 
In a tour made in 1862 through the Northern Province 
of Ceylon, he and his companions "travelled 350 miles, 
visited forty-five different villages, addressed on the 
subject of personal salvation 2200 persons, distributed 
about 26,000 pages of religious tracts, sold 373 volumes 
of books, of which five were Bibles and 151 portions of 
Scripture, and realized from sales $16.67." 

The exhausting nature of these tours, added to the 
duties of teaching and preaching and the care of the 
churches in a debilitating climate, began to tell upon the 
health of Mr. Sanders and made necessary the period 
of recreation which he took in this country in 1866-67. 
That on his return to his field he entered upon his va- 
ried duties with his old-time fervor and self-forgetful- 
ness is evidenced by the first messages sent home by him 
after his return, when he reports "a week's work at the 
islands," where they "visited 1122 houses, conversed 
with 3024 persons, held several meetings, and distrib- 
uted and sold Scripture portions and tracts." In an- 
other letter he speaks of the examination of village 
schools and of a day spent at Oodooville, where there 
were present 294 children, nearly filling the church. In 

[326] 



Biographical Sketches 

the midst of these varied and arduous labors there came 
upon him the heavy bereavement of the death of his 
wife, who had been his faithful companion and helper 
in the mission for seventeen years. But a few 
weeks after this sad event, he writes that the mission 
had asked him to take the duties of secretary, treasurer, 
and depositary, and the editorship of the Morning Star, 
while the Training and Theological Institution was still 
in his charge. At the same time there was included in 
his duties the evangelistic work of Chavakachcherri, 
Manepay, Batticotta, and the islands, this work embrac- 
ing churches, congregations, colportage tours, meet- 
ings, etc. About this time he was unanimously chosen 
to become the leader of the new educational enterprise 
— Jaffna College. In 1867 there had been held a meet- 
ing of the mission, where it was resolved that an effort 
should be made to raise funds in the Island for the en- 
dowment of the native professorships, and that an ap- 
peal be made through the Board to the churches of 
America for a fund for the president's chair and for 
some other needful expenses. The native endowment 
had been pledged, and in 1889, by permission of the 
Board and of the Ceylon Mission, Mr. Sanders returned 
to America to raise the further endowment. The Mis- 
sionary Herald for September, 1870, contains an arti- 
cle by Mr. Sanders on "The Batticotta Seminary, and 
the Proposed Jaffna College," in which he sets forth the 
plan and needs of the new institution. For a year and 
a half he labored incessantly and unsparingly upon this 
hard task, finally achieving success. But he had accom- 
plished his purpose at the cost of his health. It was in 
accordance with the best medical advice and his own 
better judgment that he should then take absolute rest 
for some months. The urgent needs of the mission, 
however, combined with his characteristic self-renuncia- 
tion, took him back to Ceylon, where he again plunged 

[327] 



Williams College and Missions 

into work with the fatal issue which physicians had 
predicted. He died of apoplexy at Batticotta August 
29, 1871, only eight weeks after his return to the mis- 
sion. His death came as a crushing blow to his col- 
leagues. He had been to them their "strong tower"; 
they had thought him equal to any burden. But espe- 
cially were the hopes and plans of his brethren respect- 
ing the proposed college thrown into temporary 
confusion. In the effort to place this enterprise upon 
a firm financial basis, he had been looked upon as the 
standard-bearer. Had Mr. Sanders lived, he would 
have been the logical candidate for the first presidency 
of Jaffna College. Williams College traditions were 
strong in the educational work at Batticotta. Besides 
Mr. Sanders, two other Williams men — Henry R. 
Hoisington, of the class of 1828, and Cyrus Taggart 
Mills, of the class of 1844 — had been principals of the 
seminary. But aside from the matter of sentiment Mr. 
Sanders' name had been brought into prominence with 
reference to the presidency of Jaffna College, not only 
by his familiarity with and success in the educational 
work of the Seminary and Training School, but by the 
efforts he had made to secure the endowments for the 
enlarged institution. 

The following extracts concerning the life and char- 
acter of Mr. Sanders are from letters written by two 
of his colleagues. Bev. William E. De Biemer wrote: 
"Our regard for our departed brother, I may say, 
amounted almost to admiration. He was admirably 
adapted to mission work. He had a most comprehen- 
sive view of the wants of the field ; was a true friend of 
the Tamil people; would listen to their sorrows and 
joys and difficulties; and when he could not approve, 
he had the happy faculty of not offending by his coun- 
sel. He had a most remarkable equanimity of mind, 
never angered under the shortcomings of servants or 

[328 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

helpers, but charitable towards all. He wore always a 
look of wonderful cheerfulness, and his frequent calls 
at our house made us feel stronger and livelier than 
before he came. He had indomitable energy, and fore- 
sight to arrange for his labor far in the future. He 
was also a model of promptness and precision, as de- 
pendent upon his watch as upon his feet. His servants 
almost invariably knew, early each morning, his princi- 
pal appointments for the day. He loved the brethren 
of the mission, and was fond of asking their advice. He 
seemed omnipresent in his field, visiting, with happy 
effect, every family of his out-stations, and contriving 
to speak a word or two with every person who showed 
any interest in Christianity. Such a worker is rarely 
found on foreign soil. May the Lord raise up many 
more like him in this constant devotion to his Saviour's 
cause." 

Rev. Eurotas P. Hastings wrote: "For eighteen 
years I have been intimately associated with him in the 
missionary work, and I have always found him a genial 
companion, an efficient co-laborer. He had character- 
istics which admirably fitted him for work in the 
foreign field. He was always willing to take any posi- 
tion assigned to him, and to work to the extent of his 
ability; was systematic in his plans, prompt in meeting 
appointments, most persevering in his labors, not eas- 
ily deterred by obstacles, not easily discouraged. What- 
ever he undertook he pursued with energy and 
earnestness. He was very conservative, very cautious, 
but never averse to change when there was a prospect 
of good to the work; and when any plan was adopted, 
whether it fully met his views or not, he could always be 
depended upon for hearty cooperation. 

"He possessed largely the confidence and affection 
of the native Christians, and the respect of the heathen 
with whom he was brought in contact. He was judi- 

[329] 



Williams College and Missions 

cious in counsel, conciliatory in his treatment of others, 
knew how to sympathize with those in sorrow, and was 
kind to all. The training school, over which he pre- 
sided with great efficiency for many years, will feel his 
death deeply." 

Mr. Sanders was married in Peru, Massachusetts, 
September 4, 1851, to Georgianna, daughter of Rev. 
Joseph and Ruby (Hyde) Knight. She died at Cey- 
lon, November 2, 1868. 

He next married, on April 6, 1870, at Adams, New 
York, Miss Carrie E. Webb, daughter of Walter and 
Lucy (Salisbury) Webb, and granddaughter of Wil- 
liam and Lois (Strong) Webb, and of Nicholas and 
Caroline (Lord) Salisbury, and a descendant of Elder 
William Brewster, who came from England on the 
Mayflower. 

By his first wife he had five sons, and by his second 
wife one son. All his children survived him. One son, 
Rev. Charles S. Sanders, a graduate of Amherst Col- 
lege, and of the Hartford Theological Seminary, was 
missionary in Turkey, and died at Aintab, October 27, 
1906. 

Four sons are still living: Joseph Anthony San- 
ders, M.D., of the medical staff at the Clifton Springs 
Sanitarium; Rev. William Henry Sanders, D.D. 
(Williams 1877), of the West Central African Mis- 
sion of the American Board; Rev. Frank Knight San- 
ders, Ph.D., D.D., LL.D., President of Washburn 
College; Walter Edward Sanders (by second wife), 
Ph.B., mechanical engineer, Trenton, New Jersey. 



CLASS OF 1847 
Charles Hunt Gardner was born in Worth- 
ington, Massachusetts, April 18, 1820, and came 
to college from that place. David A. Wells was a 

[330] 



Biographical Sketches 

classmate, and two of the members of his class, Lin- 
coln and Phillips, subsequently became professors in 
their Alma Mater. In college Gardner was a mem- 
ber of the Mills Theological Society. He left college 
before the end of his college course and received his 
degree in 1851 as of the class of 1847. Upon leaving 
college he taught for a time in a boys' school at Eliz- 
abeth, New Jersey. While thus engaged he received 
a call to labor as a missionary among the Choctaw In- 
dians. He established a new mission in the Choctaw 
Agency, having as one of his assistants Rev. Alfred 
Wright, who subsequently became Governor of the 
Choctaw nation. He remained in this service until 
April, 1850, when the declining health of his wife made 
an immedate change necessary. In September of 
the same year he opened a school in the old academy 
at Williamstown, Massachusetts, but about the first of 
January of 1851, he accepted a call to the principalship 
of the Ball Seminary at Hoosick Falls, New York. In 
August of the following year he resigned that position 
to take charge of the Cambridge Washington Acad- 
emy at Cambridge, New York. Here his labors were 
many and arduous, for besides attending to the ordi- 
nary duties belonging to the principalship, he had 
charge of a State Normal Class, and the supervision of 
all the schools in the place. In August, 1854, he was 
called to the principalship of the Hudson River In- 
stitute at Claverack, New York, and entered upon his 
duties there in the following month. The institution 
opened in November with 400 scholars. After three 
years of excessive labors in this position, his health be- 
came so impaired that he accepted a call to the Rutgers 
Female Institute, in the city of New York, entering 
upon his duties there in September, 1857. At that 
time this was the largest school for girls in New York 
City. In the autumn of 1858, he opened an institution 

[331] 



Williams College and Missions 

of his own for young ladies in east 28th Street, where 
he remained seven years, when he purchased a school in 
West 32d Street. After remaining there five years he 
purchased 620 Fifth Avenue, where he continued for 
more than thirty years, having among his patrons some 
of the most notable and wealthy of New York families. 

He died in New York, April 18, 1907. The funeral 
services were held at the Collegiate Church. 

Dr. Gardner received the degree of Doctor of Phi- 
losophy from Hamilton College in 1862. On August 
22, 1866, he was ordained an evangelist and remained 
a member of the New York Presbytery, preaching 
often on the Sabbath. 

He was married in Williamstown, Massachusetts, 
in December, 1846, to Miss Laura M. Chamberlain, 
who died, after a long and painful illness, March 5, 
1861. He next married, on December 23, 1863, Miss 
Mary R. Birge of Agawam, Massachusetts, who died 
about a year before her husband. 

By his first marriage he had two sons and a 
daughter. 

CLASS OF 1848 

Eli Corwin was born in Walkill, New York, Oc- 
tober 30, 1824. He entered college as a Sophomore in 
1845. Among his classmates at Williams were Paul 
Ansel Chadbourne and John Gibson McMynn. He 
was a member of the Philologian Society, of which he 
was for a time president, and was also a member of the 
Mills Theological Society. He was one of the speak- 
ers at Commencement, the subject of his oration being 
"Mind Enslaved." 

After graduation he studied theology at Union 
Seminary, where he was graduated in 1851. He was 
ordained in the Thirteenth Street Presbyterian Church 
of New York City, June 22 of the same year. On 

[832] 



Biographical Sketches 

October 1 of this year he sailed for San Francisco, Cal- 
ifornia, by the way of Cape Horn. For one year he 
was pastor of a church in San Francisco, and from 
1852 to 1858 he was pastor of a Presbyterian church 
in San Jose, California. He then removed to the 
Hawaiian Islands, and became pastor of the Fort 
Street Congregational Church (composed of foreign 
residents ) , in Honolulu. He remained in this position 
for ten years, being for one of these years (1859-60) 
also Acting President of Oahu College, Cyrus Taggart 
Mills (Williams 1844) being called to the presidency 
in 1860. Dr. Anderson's book, "The Hawaiian Is- 
lands," published in 1865, contains the following pleas- 
ant references to Mr. Corwin: "Mr. Corwin has been 
at Honolulu since October, 1858, and has a convenient 
house of worship which cost near $15,000, a respectable 
and well-satisfied foreign congregation, an ample sup- 
port from his people, and rare opportunity for exert- 
ing a religious influence." The following passage re- 
fers to the return from a visit to Waimea: "At night 
we went on board the Annie Laurie, with our good 
friends Mr. Corwin and Mr. Wilder, and after two 
nights and a day, which we shall not soon forget, landed 
at Honolulu early on Friday morning. 

"Mr. Corwin proposed walking to his house, and 
asked of me the loan of a sandal- wood stick, given me 
by Mr. Rice, 'to keep off the dogs.' Not many days after 
he returned me the stick in the form of a beautiful cane, 
having a large ivory head, but made no explanations. 
To my great surprise it proved, that the ivory head was 
hollow, and filled with gold coin pieces, and small cir- 
cular papers written over in this manner: — 'Good for 
, for the A. B. C. F. M., a gift from to- 
wards the expenses of your visit.' " 

In 1868 Mr. Corwin returned to California, and 
for a year was pastor of the Second Congregational 

[333] 



Williams College and Missions 

Church in Oakland, and for the years 1869-72 was pas- 
tor of the Green Street Congregational Church in San 
Francisco. His pastorate here was a notable one, and 
for two or three years (1870-72), he was also associate 
manager of Mills Seminary and financial agent of the 
Pacific Theological Seminary. 

With advancing years he returned to the East, and 
held pastorates in different churches, being from 1872 
to 1875 pastor of a Congregational church in James- 
town, New York; from 1875 to 1880, pastor of the 
First Congregational Church in Jacksonville, Illinois; 
and from 1880 to 1888, pastor of a Presbyterian church 
in Racine, Wisconsin. He then took up his residence 
in Chicago, being financial secretary of the Chicago 
Theological Seminary from 1888 to 1891. 

After a lingering illness he died in Chicago, August 
19, 1899. 

He received from his Alma Mater in 1873 the hon- 
orary degree of Doctor of Divinity. He was for a 
time a trustee of Oahu College. 

On July 16, 1851, he was married to Miss Henrietta 
S. Howell of Newburgh, New York, who survived him. 

CLASS OF 1849 
Edward Griffin Beckwith was one of those who, 
though receiving no appointment from any board of 
foreign missions, yet deserves a place in this volume 
because of valuable services rendered as preacher and 
teacher in foreign fields. He entered college from 
Great Barrington, Massachusetts, as a Freshman in 
1845. Among his classmates were John Bascom, Rob- 
ert Russell Booth, Henry Martyn Hoyt, and Charles 
Seymour Robinson. In college he was a member of 
the Delta Upsilon Fraternity, and also of the Philo- 
logian Society, of which he became one of the presi- 
dents. He at once took and maintained a high 

[334] 



Biographical Sketches 

standard of scholarship, graduating with the highest 
honor. The subject of his Valedictory Address was 
"Utility of the Beautiful. ,, 

The following sketch, taken from the Williams Col- 
lege Obituary Record, was prepared by Dr. John Bas- 
com, a classmate of Mr. Beckwith: — "Edward Griffin 
Beckwith was born at Great Barrington, Massachu- 
setts, November 16, 1828. He spent his early years on 
his father's farm, about one and a half miles from 
Great Barrington, on the mountain road to Stock- 
bridge. He had three brothers and one sister. He 
was fitted for college at Great Barrington Academy, 
at that time under the direction of James Sedgwick. 
He entered Williams College in the fall of 1845. He 
was valedictorian of his class, an able and enterprising 
one. This distinction he gained by an exact discharge 
of every duty and by evenly good work. He did noth- 
ing carelessly, shabbily, or ineffectually. Very few at- 
tained a life so quietly and firmly self-centered. He 
brought to every task diligence and good-will. Temp- 
tation never seemed to tempt him. The motives to 
goodness and success were always sufficient to carry him 
smoothly onward. He was kindly and cordial in his 
bearing and hardly developed a fault; unless such un- 
impeachable good behavior is itself a provocation. He 
was hardly brilliant, hardly progressive, but unsur- 
passed in giving at all times due weight to right motives 
and following them out in fitting action. His life was 
distinctly spherical. He habitually reached the cir- 
cumference and never broke bevond it. He seldom re- 
turned to college after leaving it, and shifted his field 
to points of labor where most was to be done and the 
largest usefulness secured. 

"The first year after graduation was spent as a 
teacher in Granby, Connecticut; the second as teacher 
in the Normal School at Westfield. He was so suc- 

[335 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

cessful in this work that he was invited to take charge 
of the educational interests in the Sandwich Islands. 
This invitation he accepted and had under his own di- 
rection the more advanced pupils of the native popula- 
tion, and the children of missionaries. Many of these 
children came later to Williams College, and always 
spoke with enthusiasm of Beckwith's work. On the 
voyage to the Islands, he made the acquaintance of Car- 
oline Armstrong, whom he afterward married. She 
was the sister of General Samuel C. Armstrong, to 
whom so large a debt of honor is due from us all. 
Three years later he became President of Oahu Col- 
lege. This position he held for five years. He so far 
pursued his studies in theology as to be licensed to 
preach in 1857. In 1859 he returned to the United 
States, and spent two years at Andover Seminary. He 
was pastor of three churches in California, and miding 
his health somewhat impaired, took at the end of this 
labor a rest on the farm at Great Barrington. He was 
invited to take charge of the Congregational Church 
in "Waterbury, Connecticut. He remained in this posi- 
tion ten years and left it with many regrets on the part 
of his people. He was an interesting preacher and a 
most sympathetic pastor. His warm, constant Chris- 
tian temper made his work in a high degree useful. 

''After leaving Waterbury he was pastor for six 
years of the Third Congregational Church of San 
Francisco. He then removed to the Sandwich Islands, 
where he spent the remainder of Iris life* For seven 
years he was pastor of the Central Union Congrega- 
tional Church at Honolulu. He was, as long as he was 
able, pastor of a church in the Island of Maui, the na- 
tive place of his wife. The death of his wife, son and 
son-in-law left him, for his last happy and peaceful 
years, in the home of his daughter, with his grandchil- 
dren about him. He died February 19, 1909. 

[336] 



Biographical Sketches 

"Few, indeed, have performed their life work with 
such uniform success, with such habitual enjoyment and 
such constant acceptance. He drew strength from the 
things which occupied him, and returned it in full meas- 
ure to those about him. A depth, diligence, and har- 
mony in work belonged to him, which made life 
a perpetual pleasure, and occupied him fully with its 
aims and rewards. He understood its enjoyments 
and had no need that any one should point them 
out." 

The following extract from the Congregational 
Year Booh for 1910 gives in order, with dates, the sev- 
eral positions occupied by Dr. Beckwith: "Was a 
teacher in Royal School in Honolulu, T. H., 1851-54. 
President of Oahu College, 1854-59. Ordained, Feb- 
ruary 3, 1857. Pastorates: pastor, Sacramento, Cali- 
fornia, 1859-60; pastor, Third Church, San Francisco, 
California, 1862-67; principal Oakland Collegiate 
School, 1867-69; pastor, Second (now Plymouth) 
Church, San Francisco, California, 1869-70; pastor, 
Second Church, Waterbury, Connecticut, 1871-81; 
pastor, Third Church, San Francisco, California, 1881- 
87; pastor, Central Union Church, Honolulu, T. H., 
1887-93; pastor, Foreign Protestant Church, Maka- 
wao, Maui, T. H., 1894-1905; pastor, Hamakuapoko, 
T. H., 1905 until death." 

Williams College conferred on him the honorary 
degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1874. 

Joseph D wight Strong, son of Joseph and Rhoda 
C. (Gates) Strong, and brother of John Cotton Strong 
(Williams 1843), was born in Granby, Connecticut, 
June 5, 1823. He entered college as a Freshman in 
1845. Among his classmates were John Bascom, Ed- 
ward Griffin Beckwith, Robert Russell Booth, Henry 
Martyn Hoyt, and Charles Seymour Robinson. He 

[ 337 J 



Williams College and Missions 

was a member of the Philologian Society and of the 
Mills Theological Society. He was one of the speakers 
at Commencement, the subject of his oration being, 
"Theory of Punishment." He studied theology at the 
Theological Institute of Connecticut, where he was 
graduated in 1852. He was for a time settled over the 
Congregational Church at Westport, Connecticut. In 
1855 he removed to the Hawaiian Islands, where he be- 
came pastor of the Fort Street Church, in Honolulu, 
being one of the predecessors of Eli Corwin (Williams 
1848). He was also Secretary and Treasurer of the 
Directors of the Free Schools of Honolulu. In 1858 
he removed to California, preaching four years in Oak- 
land, and subsequently in San Francisco. In 1867 he 
returned to the East. 

He died in 1888. 

He was married September 7, 1852, to Miss Marga- 
ret B. Bixby, who died July 24, 1886. 



CLASS OF 1851 
Jerre Lorenzo Lyons, son of Jerre Lyons, and 
grandson of Dr. Jerre and Mary (Richards) Lyons, 
was born in Montrose, Pennsylvania, April 18, 1824. 
His mother was Melinda, daughter of Rodolphus and 
Hildah (Bicknell) Bennett. He was the son of pious 
parents. The father was a merchant by occupation. 
An uncle, Rev. Lorenzo Lyons,, was one of the first 
missionaries to the Sandwich Islands. The son pre- 
pared for college in Oxford Academy, Chenango 
County, New York, and entered Williams as a Sopho- 
more in 1848. For a time before entering college he 
was principal of the academy in Montrose. In college 
he joined the Philologian Society and the Mills Theo- 
logical Society. He was one of the speakers at Com- 
mencement, the subject of his oration being "Hats." 

[338] 



Biographical Sketches 

After graduation he entered Union Theological Semi- 
nary, where he was graduated in 1854. He was or- 
dained by the Presbytery at Montrose, November 9 
of the same year, Rev. Dr. Pomeroy preaching the ser- 
mon from Revelation III, 8, "Behold I have set before 
thee an open door.' , On the 21st of the following 
month, he and his wife, with some others, sailed from 
Boston for Smyrna, under appointment of the Ameri- 
can Board, to join the Syria Mission. He reached Bei- 
rut February 26, 1855, and during the summer of that 
year he resided at Ain Zehalta, an Arab village of 600 
or 700 inhabitants, situated upon the high ridge of Leb- 
anon. Here he could escape the heat of the plain, and 
also have good facilities for studying the Arabic lan- 
guage. Mr. Lyons was also interested in the people, 
who were a mixture of Druzes, Greek Catholics, and 
Maronites, and whom he described as exceedingly hos- 
pitable, social, and polite, but deeply sunk in ignorance 
and, in matters of religion, bigoted and superstitious. 
Although his efforts were viewed with jealousy by the 
Greek Catholic priest, Mr. Lyons was enabled to at- 
tract a few to attend religious worship at his house. In 
May of the following year he and Mrs. Lyons were 
transferred from Beirut to Tripoli, being accompanied 
by Mr. Henry H. Jessup (Yale 1851), who had re- 
cently entered the field. Here they began regular serv- 
ices in the Arabic on the Sabbath. This station was an 
important one, being the center of operations for the 
large Christian population around it. Within a day's 
ride of Tripoli there are upwards of 100 Christian vil- 
lages, comprising a population of about 50,000 souls. 
In July, on account of the heat of the plains, they re- 
tired for a few weeks to Duma, a village on Lebanon, 
about eight hours distant and to the southeast of Trip- 
oli. The inhabitants of this village, numbering 600 or 
700, were mostly Greeks and Greek Catholics, from 

[339] 



Williams College and Missions 

whom the missionaries attracted good congregations on 
the Sabbath. In December of 1856, girls' schools were 
started in Tripoli. Some months later a boys' school 
was opened in the port of that town, a city about one- 
third the size of Tripoli, and having about 6000 inhabi- 
tants. In his report for the station at Tripoli, rendered 
in 1858, Mr. Lyons speaks of the success of the Sabbath 
services held at his own house, and of the opportunities 
for holding intercourse with the Mohammedans. Oc- 
tober 24 of that year was an eventful day for the mis- 
sion, as it was the day of the opening of the first 
Protestant chapel for the worship of God in that city. 
The report of the following year made mention of three 
schools, with ninety pupils connected with the station, 
of which the girls' school was especially prosperous, a 
public examination in which eliciting a commendatory 
article in an Arabic newspaper. The same report 
speaks of the sale of twenty-three copies of the Scrip- 
tures, and 138 copies of the Psalms. Since the field 
occupied by the station contains several hundred vil- 
lages in a district of 1500 square miles, there was need 
of much touring. Mr. Lyons made several tours and 
visited more than forty villages on one of these tours, 
pursuing a northeasterly course along the ridge of 
Lebanon, and penetrating as far as the ancient city 
of Akkar. A portion of the country passed over 
was never before visited, so far as is known, by 
missionaries. 

In 1860 the mission in Syria was interrupted by a 
civil war of unexampled barbarity, one of the stations 
being nearly blotted from existence, and those portions 
of the mountains where the Protestant influence was 
strongest being desolated with fire and sword. Many 
thousands of widows and fatherless children in the vil- 
lages of Lebanon became dependent on charity for shel- 
ter, clothing, and food. Tripoli was almost the only 

[ 340] 



Biographical Sketches 

town of importance in Syria that remained undisturbed 
during the war. Mr. Lyons, accompanied by Antonius 
Yanni, American Vice-Consul at Tripoli, made a visit 
to the villages in the vicinity of Baalbec, in behalf of the 
Anglo-American Relief Committee, to extend chari- 
table aid. Of the districts visited, Mr. Lyons wrote: 
"The district which we had now traversed, called Belad 
Baalbec, extends from the source of the river Orontes, 
on the north, to Zaleh on the south. It is about forty 
miles in length, and varies from four to ten miles in 
breadth. In this area, of some 240 square miles, there 
are fifty-two villages, with an aggregate population 
(exclusive of Zaleh) of 14,500 souls, nearly three- 
fourths of whom are nominal Christians, the remain- 
der being Moslems and Metawales. All the Christian 
villages in the district, some thirty-six in number, had 
been plundered, and twenty-six burned, thus reducing 
the whole Christian population of about 10,000 souls 
to beggary and want. The Christians of this part of 
Syria, unlike the Maronites of Mount Lebanon, had 
had no quarrel with their Metawale neighbors, and the 
attack made upon them seems to have been unprovoked 
and instigated only by Moslem fanaticism and hate." 
On this tour there were constant opportunities, which 
Mr. Lyons improved, of preaching the gospel to atten- 
tive audiences. 

In accordance with the action of the mission, Mr. 
Lyons was transferred in 1861 to the Sidon station, 
while Mr. Jessup continued at Beirut. From the first 
the work at Sidon prospered. In February of 1862 he 
wrote of having twelve or fifteen hopeful candidates for 
church membership, of Sabbath congregations number- 
ing from sixty to eighty, and of the formation of a so- 
ciety for the purpose of securing regular contributions 
from the natives to the cause of missions. A few 
months later, in a letter which proved to be his last from 

[341] 



Williams College and Missions 

this field to be published in the Missionary Herald, he 
gave an account of a tour to Tyre, Bussa, Acre, and 
other places, in all of which he saw signs of prom- 
ise and found new openings for the entrance of the 
gospel. 

For some time, owing to the demands of the fields 
where he had labored, Mr. Lyons had been overwork- 
ing, and in 1863 he was compelled by ill health to return 
to this country, where he was laid aside from work for 
eight years. Of this period, the years 1864 and 1871 
were spent in Montrose, and the intervening years at 
South Berwick, Maine. Dr. Calvin C. Halsey, one of 
the two surviving members of the class of 1844, a for- 
mer and present resident of Montrose, has supplied the 
following reminiscences of Mr. Lyons: "In 1863 Mr. 
Lyons returned from Syria, broken in health. In July 
and August of that year I was in the Emergency Serv- 
ice of the United States Government. My health gave 
way to such an extent that I was unable to follow my 
profession in the summer of 1864. We were two inva- 
lids, and, in quest of health, went with my horse and 
carriage to attend the Commencement at Williams. 
We drove twelve or fifteen miles in the early part of the 
day and about as much more in the latter part of the 
day, resting while it was hot. We visited relatives of 
his at Lanesboro, Pennsylvania, and Cairo, New York. 
We greatly enjoyed going through the country in this 
way. We stopped in Williamstown near the Hoosic 
Bridge on the Pownal road, with a lady who had 
been a pupil of Mr. Lyons. A telegram summoned 
him to South Berwick, Maine, and I returned home 
alone." 

In 1872 Mr. Lyons became Superintendent of the 
American Bible Society in Florida, being located at 
Jacksonville. This position he held for twelve years. 
In 1885 he removed from Jacksonville to Waldo, Flor- 

[342] 



Biographical Sketches 

ida, where he took charge of the Presbyterian Church. 
In January, 1888, he resigned that charge and returned 
to Jacksonville, seeking relief from his disease, he being 
a sufferer from neuralgia, which resulted from a sun- 
stroke received in Syria. He died in Jacksonville, 
March 1, 1888. 

For twelve years he was the stated clerk of the Pres- 
bytery of East Florida. 

He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from 
Maryville College in 1887. 

"He was a man greatly esteemed by all who knew 
him and will be greatly missed, not only in the immedi- 
ate field of his labor, but in all the State, where his wise 
foresight and judicious work brought liberal return to 
the kingdom of Christ." A tribute to his memory was 
prepared by Rev. Dr. Charles A. Stoddard (Williams 
1854) and published in the Obituary Record of the 
Union Theological Seminary. 

Dr. H. H. Jessup wrote of him: "His foreign mis- 
sionary experience, his affability, his knowledge of hu- 
man nature, and his conscientious fidelity to the work of 
his Master made him acceptable to the people. He had 
a keen sense of humor, was a fine musician, fond of 
travel, genial in his intercourse with the Syrian people, 
and wise in counsel. He longed to return to Syria, but 
his physician would not consent." 

Mr. Lyons was married October 26, 1854, to Miss 
Catharine N. Plumer, of South Berwick, Maine, sister 
of Alexander R. Plumer, missionary in Western Tur- 
key. She, with a son, of six children born to them, sur- 
vived her husband. She resides in Montrose. The son, 
John Plumer Lyons, who was graduated at Harvard 
in 1882, is engaged in editorial work in New York 
City. 

The following letter was written by one of the two 
surviving classmates of Mr. Lyons. 

[343 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

New York, June 12, 1911. 
Professor John H. Hewitt, 
Williams College, 

Williamstown, Mass. 
Dear Sir: — 

Your letter of the 8th inst. in regard to my class- 
mate, Jerre Lorenzo Lyons, D.D., is received. I fear, 
however, I cannot furnish you with such recollections 
of him in college as will be of service to you in your 
proposed philanthropic work. Of course, I knew him 
quite well during our college course. Was not espe- 
cially intimate with him, but could not fail to speak of 
him in the highest praise as a friend, scholar, and 
classmate. 

It seems to me, upon reflection, that in our day 
classmates were all brothers; in fact, I am inclined to 
the belief that the tie of brotherhood was somewhat 
closer drawn in our day. This by reason of smaller 
classes and more democratic class of students in col- 
lege attendance. However, I may be mistaken; my 
viewpoint is limited. 

Classmate Lyons needs no eulogy from me or any 
man. His ambition, his devotion to his profession, his 
prompt enlistment as a missionary in those early mis- 
sion days, and his ten years' service in foreign fields is 
his best eulogy. 

Dr. Lyons was not a robust man; small in stature 
and frail in physique. He called to see me in New York 
on his return to America from Syria in the years 
1872 and 1874, and if I remember correctly he said his 
labors abroad had told upon his health. 

I thank you for the opportunity of recalling him 
to memory. 

Standing as I do on the summit of the allotted years 
and still in active business, with only one classmate now 
living, your recall to my mind the name of one who long 

[ 314 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

ago passed on, brings premonition that should be 
salutary. 

Yours very truly, 

S. B. Good ale. 

CLASS OF 1852 

John Kellogg Harris, the only child of Colonel 
John Harris and Clarinda Pamela (Case) Harris, was 
born February 16, 1832, in Ticonderoga, Essex 
County, New York. His grandparents on his father's 
side were Samuel Harris, who was said to have been 
born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, about 1778 or 
1780, and Hannah Barbara (Hufnagel) Harris, whose 
father, Michael Hufnagel, came from Frankfort-on- 
the-Main, Germany, to New York City. 

Mr. Harris entered Williams as a Sophomore in 
1849, and became a member of the Philotechnian So- 
ciety and the Mills Theological Society. Among his 
classmates were John W. Dickinson, Charles McEwen 
Hyde, Arthur Latham Perry, and Lewellyn Pratt. 
Three of his classmates, Hyde, Marcusson, and Pixley 
served, for a longer or shorter time, as missionaries in 
foreign fields. He took good rank as a scholar, and 
after graduation he joined the Choctaw Mission, in Oc- 
tober, 1852, several others going to this mission at the 
same time. He was stationed at Norwalk, where he 
was a successful teacher, from 1852 to 1854. Rev. Al- 
fred Wright (Williams 1812) , who was for thirty years 
a devoted and faithful preacher of Christ among the 
Indians, was still a member of this mission, being lo- 
cated at Wheelock. 

Mr. Harris had the advantage of entering into 
the labors of others. The mission among the Choctaws 
had been commenced by Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury 
(Brown University 1812) in 1818. At that time the 
Choctaws were emphatically a pagan and savage peo- 

[ 345 ] 



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Biographical Sketches 

and preached for two years. In 1869 he moved to Har- 
rodsburg, Kentucky, where he became Principal of the 
Harrodsburg Female College and was pastor of the 
Kirkwood church. From this place he removed, in 
1872, to Floyd, Virginia, where he became pastor of the 
Jacksonville church and was stated supply of the 
church at Xew River. The church at Turtle Rock was 
also organized about this time under his ministry. In 
1882 he moved to Nebraska, becoming stated supply at 
Red Cloud for two years and at Scotia for five years. 
In 1889 he returned to Floyd, Virginia, where he re- 
sumed the pastorate of the Jacksonville and Turtle 
Rock churches. It was here his great life work was 
done, and where he continued to reside till the time 
of his death, March 22, 1910. 

During the time of his first residence in Floyd he 
established Oxford Academy, over which he presided 
with great ability and marked success for many years. 
In all he taught and preached in Floyd County for over 
thirty years. Under his able management, the Acad- 
emy acquired an enviable reputation throughout south- 
western Virginia, and students came to the school from 
long distances, drawn by the attractive personality of 
the principal. It is said that many of the leading men 
and women who have grown up in that section of Vir- 
ginia in the past generation received their training un- 
der his guidance. 

Mr. Harris was a man of superior native ability and 
of rare intellectual attainments, to which were joined 
the graces of a Christian character. Through this com- 
bination of qualities he was enabled to perform his ar- 
duous labors for the cause of home missions and to 
become also the brilliant and successful teacher. 

The writer of the memorial adopted by the Mont- 
gomery Presbytery said of him : "It is impossible to set 
forth in a short sketch the rare combinations of gifts 



Williams College and Missions 

and qualities of mind and heart which he possessed. His 
mental equipments were unusual. . . . His imagina- 
tion was intensely active and soared aloft, but his judg- 
ment was clear, his conclusions sound, logical, and 
conservative. To his familiar acquaintance with the 
classics he added a wide and varied knowledge of cur- 
rent topics, in which he felt a deep interest and in the 
discussion of which he displayed keen discernment. His 
memory, unimpaired by age, enabled him to bring the 
wisdom of the past and shed its light upon the living 
issues of the day with surprising effect. His wit, in 
which there was never a sting, brought out strange con- 
trasts, odd similitudes, and startling combinations 
which gave a freshness and added zest to whatever he 
said. His speeches on the floor of Presbytery and 
Synod were heartily welcomed. They were pithy, to 
the point, and usually served to relieve the tension of 
debate. His geniality made him a favorite with all 
classes. In his later years he was pleased to class him- 
self with the aged, but in spirit he was the youngest of 
the young. His sympathy was tender and genuine. 
His interest in others was keen, far-reaching, full of 
love, and unselfish. 

"His faith was of that strong type that combines 
childlike simplicity with a clear grasp of the truth after 
thorough investigation. His independent spirit found 
its chief delight in surrender to the will of his Master, 
and in walking humbly with his God. His piety had 
for its basis the eternal verities, and prayer was his 
atmosphere." 

Mr. Harris was married June 12, 1857, in Brat- 
tleboro, Vermont, to Miss Chloe Minerva Bigelow. 
She was a godly woman, well endowed with rare gifts 
of mind and character, cultivated and refined, and so, 
well fitted to be helpful to her devoted husband in his 
many and fruitful labors. She died in 1898. Of six 

[348] 












Henry Albert Schauffler 


William Tracy 


Samuel Hutehings 


Charles McEwen Hyde 


Nathan Brown 


David Coit Scudder 


Arthur Mitchell 


James Herriek 


Stephen Clapp Pixley 



REPRESENTATIVES OF COLLEGE CLASSES OF PERIOD 1825-1860 



Biographical Sketches 

children born to Mr. and Mrs. Harris, two sons died 
in infancy, and one son, Dr. J. Len Harris, died in Lex- 
ington, Kentucky, in 1896, leaving a widow and three 
children. Three daughters are living: Mrs. Clara 
Elizabeth Harris Akers, Asheville, North Carolina; 
Mrs. Susan Maria Harris Hall and Miss Mayday A. 
Harris of New York City. 

Charles McEwen Hyde, oldest son of Joseph 
and Catherine (McEwen) Hyde, was born in New 
York City June 8, 1832. He was the grandson of 
Alvan and Lucy (Fessenden) Hyde, and of Charles 
and Sarah (Betts) McEwen. The ancestors of the Mc- 
Ewens settled in Stratford, Connecticut, in the seven- 
teenth century. The grandfather, Rev. Alvan Hyde, 
D.D., was a most worthy descendant of a staunch New 
England family, who were among the first settlers of 
Norwich, Connecticut. He was graduated from Dart- 
mouth College in 1788, and in 1792 was ordained pas- 
tor of the church in Lee, Massachusetts, which relation 
he sustained, with remarkable success, for more than 
forty years, till the time of his death, in 1833. For 
more than thirty years he was closely associated with 
the friends and patrons of Williams College. He was 
elected trustee of the college in 1802, and vice-president 
in 1812, both of which offices he held until the time of 
his death. Four of his sons were graduated at this col- 
lege in 181.5, 1822, 1826, and 1834 respectively, and two 
grandsons in 1852 and 1860 respectively. Joseph 
Hyde, the father of the subject of our sketch, was 
graduated in 1822 and was tutor in the college 1824-25. 
He subsequently studied law with Burr and Benedict 
and was admitted to the bar in New York City, where 
he began the practice of his profession. He was set- 
tled for a short time in Palmyra, New York, but soon 
returned to New York City, where he was appointed 

[ 349 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

General Agent and Assistant Treasurer of the Amer- 
ican Bible Society, which position he held for sixteen 
years. He was prominently identified with Dr. 
Adams' Church and was active in its councils. He 
married Catherine, daughter of Judge Charles Mc- 
Ewen, a woman of rare refinement and delicacy of 
feeling, and a lineal descendant of one of the Scotch 
Covenanters. 

Charles McEwen Hyde was thus sprung from ex- 
cellent stock on both sides. The nature of his home 
training was of the best. It is related of him that at 
the age of three years he took part in the family wor- 
ship by reading the Bible in turn with other members 
of the family. He early developed a taste for the study 
of language and was thoroughly trained in Latin and 
Greek. He pursued his preparatory studies in New 
York City and Ware, Massachusetts, and was ready 
for college at the age of fourteen. The father, thinking 
him too young to enter college, sent him to Ware, to 
obtain some idea of business life in a bank where the 
lad's uncle was cashier. He entered college in 1848 
and at once took rank among the foremost scholars of 
his class. He was a member, and for a time president, 
of the Philologian Society, the records of which, to- 
gether with some essays preserved, give evidence that 
in college he did much distinctively literary work. He 
was also a member of the Mills Theological Society. 
He was graduated as Valedictorian of his class, the sub- 
ject of his valedictory address being "Hidden Power." 

A classmate, Rev. Dr. Lewellyn Pratt, of Norwich, 
Connecticut, has given a pleasant view of his student 
life. "It is a great pleasure," writes Dr. Pratt, "to 
recall a student life so nearly ideal as that of Charles 
M. Hyde. He entered the Freshman class in Williams 
in 1848, one of the youngest of its members, took the 
first place in scholarship at once, and held it steadily 

[350] 



Biographical Sketches 

through the whole course, and at his graduation was 
the valedictorian. All this was accomplished with such 
ease, and with such unconsciousness of doing anything 
remarkable or being superior to anybody, that it seemed 
a matter of course. He never appeared to be driven 
or in haste but was always prepared ; was about equally 
successful in all parts of the curriculum, and had leis- 
ure enough to do a large amount of general reading. 

"In manner he was always a gentleman, careful in 
dress and in speech, considerate of others, unwilling to 
give or take offence, affable and companionable, so un- 
hurried that he could give time and help to others ; and 
commanded the respect and confidence of the whole 
college. He could enjoy boyish sports with the rest; 
but from these he withdrew when they became coarse 
or lawless. He was a model of good manners and of a 
clean life, and yet he was no prig, nor ever dreamed 
of posing as a model. Gentlemanliness and correct de- 
portment seemed native and inherent in him, and in 
these he excelled as in scholarship with the same un- 
consciousness and absence of effort. 

"We all felt that back of all this, which was so cor- 
rect and admirable, was religious principle. He had 
inherited virtue, had been well trained, he had made 
duty his guiding star. Reverent, faithful, true, and 
pure, he had a charmed life in the midst of the whirls 
and tempests and temptations of college life, merited 
and 'obtained a good report.' " 

Another classmate, Rev. Charles J. Hill, D.D., 
gives the following reminiscences: "When I went to 
Williams College in 1849 I became acquainted with a 
young man who was familiarly called 'Charlie Hyde.' 
He was one of the six 'Charlies' of our class — all good 
fellows. 

"He was physically one of the finest looking men 
in the class. He was about medium height, with a good 

[MS] 



Williams College and Missions 

figure, thick black hair, a smooth face, a clear blue eye 
and a manly bearing. He was not much of an athlete, 
and I do not remember that he cared much about the 
gymnasium, but he was fond of walking, and I recall 
with pleasure the walks we took together up West 
Mountain and over the hills which surround Williams. 

"He always dressed well and, coming from New 
York, brought its style with him. He was a genial, 
kind, courteous gentleman. We all loved him and 
acknowledged that he was the most popular man in 
our class. 

"As a scholar he was easily preeminent, always ac- 
curate, ever ready to respond to his name, never care- 
less in his preparation and always equal to any demand 
put upon him. It was no surprise to any of us when 
he took the valedictory." 

His thoughts had been early turned to the ministry, 
and after graduation, after being employed for a time 
as private tutor in New Haven, Connecticut, and 
Savannah, Georgia, he entered Union Theological 
Seminary in 1853. His studies here were interrupted 
owing to the necessity of his obtaining means for the 
completion of his seminary course. For three years he 
taught in a school established by his father in Sheffield, 
Massachusetts, devoting much time out of school hours 
to carrying on the farm connected with the school. 
The last two years of his theological course were spent 
at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he was grad- 
uated in 1860. 

His first pastoral work was done in Goshen, Con- 
necticut, where he supplied the pulpit for a few months. 
On August 19, 1862, he was ordained and installed pas- 
tor of the Congregational Church in Brimfield, Massa- 
chusetts, Dr. Hopkins preaching the sermon. After a 
successful pastorate of eight years in this place, Mr. 
Hyde accepted a call as successor to Rev. Dr. Munger, 

[352] 



Biographical Sketches 

to the Center Congregational Church of Haverhill, 
Massachusetts, where he was installed November 15, 
1870. Here he was confronted with the problems that 
belong to a city church and a manufacturing town. 
Here also were opportunities for activity outside the 
church organization. Here, aside from his regular 
duties as preacher and pastor, as member of the school 
board and of the Board of Visitors of Bradford Acad- 
emy, as an energetic worker in behalf of temperance, 
and a participant in the discussions of the Monday 
Evening Club, he found scope for all his culture and his 
great executive ability. And when, on December 15, 
1875, the Haverhill pastorate was concluded, men bore 
witness to his eminent worth, his practical ability, his 
earnestness and resolution, and to his unwearied devo- 
tion to every good cause. The success which he had 
achieved in his pastorates opened to him that wider 
field in which he was to spend the remaining years of 
his life. 

In 1875 the Prudential Committee of the Ameri- 
can Board came to feel that the work of the Board in 
the Hawaiian Islands had been turned over to native 
hands too soon, and that this work needed further guid- 
ance, especially in the matter of training native min- 
isters for that group and other islands in Micronesia. 
The committee sought for a man of wide experience in 
the pastorate, intelligent and tactful in dealing with 
parish problems, one, too, capable of organizing and 
conducting a training school for those who should be- 
come leaders of their people. The choice of a man for 
a position of such varied relations happily fell upon Dr. 
Hyde. On March 21, 1877, farewell exercises were 
held in the First Congregational Church in Chelsea, 
previous to the departure of ten missionaries of the 
Board, among whom were Dr. and Mrs. Hyde. Land- 
ing in Honolulu in June, 1877, he organized the North 

[353] 



Williams College and Missions 

Pacific Missionary Institute, of which he was principal 
for twenty-two years. Very soon after his arrival re- 
port came back that Dr. Hyde was "the right man in 
the right place," and succeeding years only confirmed 
the first judgment. He was an accomplished scholar 
and an experienced pastor, but it was not these quali- 
ties that secured for him his greatest influence with the 
people. In showing them how to work he taught them 
the dignity of manual labor, he made himself familiar 
with the needs of his students and often relieved their 
temporal needs ; his knowledge of business affairs made 
him helpful to the people in secular matters. His home 
was one of open hospitality to students and others, and 
soon he was looked upon as a man of great love. It 
was natural that such a personality should have 
made a deep impression on all with whom he came in 
contact. 

His interest in education was not confined to the 
institute of which he was principal. On the reorgan- 
ization of the Kawaiahao Female Seminary he was 
made President of the Board of Trustees and himself 
raised money in the States with which to put up a mod- 
ern building. He was commissioned by the Hawaiian 
Board to reopen the female school which had been 
opened at Kohala but was now closed. He was also 
made chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Pu- 
nahou Preparatory School and in the summer of 1890 
spent some weeks in the East in securing a suitable 
head for the institution. 

The educational work done by Dr. Hyde as thus 
far considered was connected with institutions already 
established. But what he regarded as perhaps the most 
satisfactory of the efforts he made in behalf of the na- 
tive race, was the assistance he rendered in the estab- 
lishment of the Kamehameha Schools. These were 
schools established by Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the last 

[ 354 ] 



Biographical Six etches 

surviving representative of the royal house. She had 
once refused the offer of the crown, and happily mar- 
ried to the leading banker of Honolulu, Charles K. 
Bishop, she devoted herself to such good works as 
would advance the best interests of her people. She 
sought especially to give the Hawaiian youth superior 
educational advantages, and consulted Dr. Hyde 
among others as to plans. In accordance with the 
plans finally adopted, a good share of her property, 
amounting to several hundred thousand dollars, was 
devoted in her will to the establishment and support 
of schools which should "provide first and chiefly a good 
education in the common English branches, and also 
instruction in morals and such useful knowledge as may 
tend to make good, industrious men and women." Dr. 
Hyde was one of the five trustees selected by her to 
carry out the provisions of the will, and as he was the 
one best fitted by nature and training to speak with 
authority upon educational questions, his judgment al- 
ways had great weight with his colleagues. There 
thus came to him an opportunity to put in practice 
many of the plans to which he had already given much 
study. The success of the schools shows the wisdom 
of Mrs. Bishop and of those selected to carry out her 
plans. 

But Dr. Hyde's interests were not limited to edu- 
cational matters. He was an efficient helper in vari- 
ous forms of evangelistic and public work. The senti- 
ment of the Roman poet could be fittingly applied to 
him: Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto. He 
took an early interest in the Chinese, and when they 
came to form a church, they asked Dr. Hyde to draw 
up a covenant and articles of faith. When Sunday- 
school work was developed among the Portuguese, the 
Hawaiian Board commissioned Dr. Hyde to procure 
workers for this field. The well-organized work 

[ 355 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

among the Japanese is to be traced back to the inter- 
est which Dr. Hyde took in this people on their first 
arrival in the Islands. Indeed he regarded his work 
among the Japanese as the romance of his missionary 
career. 

In the discharge of his duties along edu- 
cational and evangelistic lines, he never shirked the 
obligations of citizenship, while we find him showing 
his sympathy with the general interest of society by 
establishing the Social Science Club, and aiding in the 
movements for the foundation of the Honolulu Library 
and Reading Room Association and of the "Bernice 
Pauahi Bishop Museum." 

In 1894, feeling that his own services could not be 
continued indefinitely and anxious to render his expe- 
rience valuable to his successor, he relinquished three- 
quarters of his salary that the Board might engage an 
associate for him in his work. In 1898 he gave up the 
rest of his salary though still continuing his services 
for the Board. 

After a severe illness in 1896, from which he never 
fully recovered, the encroachment of disease gradually 
enfeebled him and it became evident that he needed ab- 
solute relief from his work. In the spring of 1899 he 
made the long journey to this country, where he visited 
his older son and passed a quiet summer. But on his 
return to his home he sank rapidly and died October 
13, 1899, in the 68th year of his age. 

Impressive funeral services were held in Central 
Union Church of Honolulu, and were attended by a 
large gathering of people, with representatives of all 
the principal religious, educational, and social organi- 
zations of the Islands. The casket was borne to the 
grave by eight students of the North Pacific Mission- 
ary Institute. 

The Pacific Commercial Advertiser of October 14 

[ 356] 



Biographical Sketches 

contained an appreciative notice of Dr. Hyde, in which 
extended reference was made to the various sorts of 
service rendered by him, and special emphasis was 
placed upon what had been accomplished by the North 
Pacific Institute. "From this institution/' says the 
writer of the article, "have gone forth, under the train- 
ing of Dr. Hyde, the whole circle of younger men who 
to-day fill the pastorates of the Hawaiian churches.'' 
And after referring to some of these pastors by name 
the writer adds, "These men are the best witnesses to 
the faithful and painstaking service of this most inde- 
fatigable of teachers." 

A most fitting memorial of Dr. Hyde was pre- 
pared soon after his death by his older son. An inter- 
esting feature of the volume, and one which testifies 
to the diversity and extent of Dr. Hyde's services, 
is the collection of tributes coming from a great va- 
riety of sources. Besides the tributes which came 
from American friends, there are given appre- 
ciations from a native pastor, the Chinese Vice- 
Consul, the pastor of the Portuguese Church, and a 
former Japanese Consul-General. 

One of the published reports of the meeting of the 
American Board held at Worcester, Massachusetts, in 
1893, at which Dr. Hyde was present, contains a pen 
picture of the man as he then appeared: "Dr. Hyde 
is one of the venerable missionaries whose years of ex- 
perience in the field have given a knowledge of the 
Hawaiian Islands that but few possess. Pie is a man 
of fine presence, of good height, erect, hair almost snow- 
white, pleasant, attractive, dark face, with, however, the 
'chin of determination' which bespeaks for him, under- 
neath the quiet manner, the strong commanding char- 
acter which has served him so long in his work. He 
speaks with a directness that does not need the tricks 
of oratory to gain for itself an audience. A glance 

[357] 



Williams College and Missions 

around the well-filled hall while he was speaking showed 
by the attitude of the faces the exact direction in which 
they had to look to see the speaker." 

The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred 
upon Mr. Hyde by his Alma Mater in 1872. 

He married October 10, 1865, Mary, daughter of 
Dr. Ebenezer and Thirza Williams (Bliss) Knight, 
granddaughter of Samuel and Eunice (Parkhurst) 
Knight and of Ichabod and Thirza (McCall) Bliss, and 
a descendant from a Bliss who settled in Braintree, 
Massachusetts, in 1638. 

There were born to them two children, both of 
whom are living: Henry Knight Hyde (Williams 
1887), a banker in Ware, Massachusetts; and Charles 
K. Hyde, Boulogne, France. 

Dr. Hyde published a "History of Briimield" 
(1879), and in collaboration with President S. C. Bart- 
lett of Dartmouth, the "Historical Sketch of the Ha- 
waiian Mission." He gathered much of the material 
for the "History of Lee," which his uncle, Alexander 
Hyde, published. Besides numerous letters concern- 
ing his work published in the Missionary Herald, he 
published in the Springfield Republican a series of let- 
ters giving the results of his observations made during 
a trip through Europe in 1893, and also many articles 
on Hawaiian affairs. He published in the Hawaiian 
Gazette a series of letters giving an account of a three 
months' visit to Japan and China. He also wrote for 
Thrum's Annual various articles, mostly on subjects 
connected with Hawaiian literature. He was an ear- 
nest student of the Hawaiian language and literature 
and made important additions to Andrews' Hawaiian 
Dictionary. Some of the results of his language study 
he published in 1896, in a Hawaiian Grammar. For 
live years previous to his death, he published a Quar- 
terly called Hoahana, which contained the International 

[858 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

Sunday-school lessons with his comments. He also 
translated many hymns into Hawaiian. 

Jacob William Marcusson, son of Herman and 
Hinda (Wolfsohn) Marcusson, was born in Skalat, 
Galicia, Austria, July 11, 1826. When he was three 
years of age he was taken by his parents to Odessa, 
Russia, whither they emigrated. The father was a 
merchant, and also given to scholarly pursuits, being 
especially proficient in Hebrew. The son came to 
America in his youth, landing in Boston. By special 
invitation of Professor William Thompson of East 
Windsor Theological Seminary, young Marcusson pur- 
sued some of his preparatory studies in Latin and 
Greek at that institution. He completed his course of 
preparatory studies at Williston Seminary, Easthamp- 
ton, Massachusetts. He entered Amherst College in 
1848, but three years later he entered Williams as a 
Senior. Here he taught a class in German. He was 
a member of the Mills Theological Society, and of the 
Philotechnian Society. His catalogue address was 
Odessa, Russia. 

After graduation, he spent a year in East Windsor 
Theological Seminary, and the succeeding year at the 
Union Theological Seminary, after which he returned 
to East Windsor. On January 23, 1855, he was or- 
dained by a Congregational Association and received 
an appointment from the American Board, as mission- 
ary to Salonica (the ancient Thessalonica) , Turkey. 
Permission was granted him to spend a year in Ger- 
many before going to his station. While in Germany 
he visited Halle University, where he was a guest of 
Dr. Tholuck; and also visited an uncle, Dr. W. Wolf- 
sohn, in Dresden. About the same time he received 
notice that at the meeting of the Evangelical Alliance 
in Paris, Dr. Anderson, the Secretary of the American 

[359] 



Williams College and Missions 

Board, had, at the request of the Established Church 
of Scotland, ceded the station of Salonica to that 
church, and that he, Mr. Marcusson, had been ap- 
pointed by that church to organize the Salonica Mis- 
sion. He went to Salonica in 1855, remaining there 
three years, and subsequently spending four years in 
Constantinople, being in both places a missionary of the 
Church of Scotland. 

The importance of Salonica as a missionary station 
had been noticed by Messrs. Schauffler and Dwight, 
the former of whom had visited it twice, the second 
time being in 1847. It was estimated that the num- 
ber of Jews residing there was 35,000, or about 
half of the whole population, and the number of 
their synagogues was fifty-six. The Rev. Messrs. 
Maynard and Dodd, under the appointment of the 
American Board, went there in 1849, and on the death 
of Mr. Maynard, Rev. Justin W. Parsons (Williams 
1845), had taken his place. Rev. Henry B. Morgan 
and his wife joined the mission in 1852. The location 
proved to be so malarial, Mrs. Morgan dying there of 
intermittent fever, that it was deemed best for the mis- 
sionaries to remove to Constantinople, and to leave the 
station in care of native helpers. It was early in 1856 
that the station was relinquished as above explained, 
though not in consequence of failing success. 

At the close of this period of service in Turkey, in 
1862, Mr. Marcusson returned to this country and 
joined the Nassau Presbytery. He was stated supply 
of the Presbyterian Church in Lockport, New York, 
in the years 1863-65, and then in home missionary work 
in Cincinnati, Ohio, and for one year in Gosport, New 
York. He then became a pastor of a church in Lyn- 
don ville, New York, where he remained from 1868 to 
1878, and was the succeeding year pastor at Barre 
Centre, New York. During the years 1879-81, he 

[860] 



Biographical Sketches 

was stated supply at Holley, New York. He then re- 
moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he did work as an 
evangelist during the years 1882-84, and then became 
stated supply of churches in Wisconsin, remaining a 
year at each of these places: Waunakee, Wausau, and 
Amberg. During the years 1886-90 he resided with- 
out charge in Chicago. The year 1892-93 was spent in 
Europe. He was then for two or three years superin- 
tendent of the Chicago Hebrew Mission, which he or- 
ganized, and was for two years pastor of the mission, 
being a member of the Chicago Presbytery. After 
1899 he lived in honorable retirement at Lagrange, Illi- 
nois, where he died April 1, 1913. 

Mr. Marcusson had the satisfaction of a long life, 
and as he looked back upon a period of more than four 
score years he had the supreme joy of feeling that his 
life had been devoted to the highest and noblest service. 
During the last years of his life he had in preparation 
an autobiography which may be published. 

Mr. Marcusson was married at Frankfort-on-the- 
Main, August 3, 1858, to Miss Julie Behringer of 
Stuttgart, Wurtemberg, Germany, who is of aristo- 
cratic descent. Of this marriage there were born two 
sons and one daughter, who are still living : Dr. William 
Beringer Marcusson, a graduate of Williams in the 
class of 1881, a physician in Chicago, Illinois; Mrs. 
Julie M. Way, widow of Dr. George W. Way, and now 
in the employ of the Children's Aid Society; and Mr. 
H. W. Marcusson of Lagrange, Illinois. 

Rev. Stephen Clapp Pixley, the venerable mis- 
sionary and alumnus of the class of 1852, who died Feb- 
ruary 21, 1914, at Durban, Natal, South Africa, was 
born in Plainfield, Massachusetts, June 23, 1829. He 
was the son of Noah and Hannah (Shaw) Pixley, and 
grandson of Noah Pixley. The family traces its an- 

[361] 



Williams College and Missions 

cestry back to William Pixley, who married Sarah 
Lawrence in Hadley, Massachusetts, in 1663, and 
moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1668. The 
father of Stephen Clapp Pixley was a carpenter and 
farmer by occupation. 

Plainfleld, the birthplace of the son, is one of those 
so-called "mountain towns" of old Hampshire County, 
which have furnished to the professions, particularly 
to the ministry, so many young men. If, in his prepa- 
ration for college, young Pixley was denied the inspi- 
ration that comes from large classes in an academy, he 
did enjoy the advantages of receiving private instruc- 
tion from a teacher who was famous and possessed of a 
rare personality. This teacher was Rev. Moses Hal- 
lock, who after graduating at Yale in 1788 and study- 
ing theology, settled in 1792 as the first pastor of the 
Congregational Church in Plainfleld, where he re- 
mained until the time of his death in 1837, a period of 
forty-five years. For thirty years of this period Mr. 
Hallock received pupils in his family and more than 
300 boys and girls were thus fitted for college and active 
life. Among these 132 went to college, fifty becom- 
ing ministers, and six becoming missionaries. Many 
of these pupils were objects of gratuitous assistance 
and many more received tuition and board at a cost of 
little more than one dollar per week. The inscription 
on Mr. Hallock's tombstone characterized him as "a 
man of patriarchal simplicity, integrity, sincerity, kind- 
ness; without an enemy." 

Young Pixley entered college in the fall of 1848. 
Among his classmates were Charles Edward Harwood, 
Charles McEwen Hyde, Arthur Latham Perry, and 
Lewellyn Pratt. He was a member of the Philologian 
Society and of the Mills Society of Inquiry. Availing 
himself of various means of self-help furnished by the 
college, he was at the same time an assiduous and suc- 

[362] 



Biographical Sketches 

cessful student. He took a high stand as a scholar and 
graduated with Phi Beta Kappa rank. Whether or 
not he had already decided upon his life work his 
thoughts evidently turned to service in the mission field, 
for the subject of his junior oration was "The Mission- 
ary Life," and he was assigned the honorary appoint- 
ment of the Missionary Oration for Commencement, 
his subject being "Indirect Results of Missions." 

After graduation he taught for a time at Poquo- 
nock, Connecticut, and then entered East Windsor 
Theological Seminary, where he was graduated in 1855. 
On September 25 of the same year he was ordained as 
a missionary. In his final decision as to his life plan, 
he had been influenced in part by an older brother who 
planned to become a missionary, but especially by his 
sister, who had married Rev. David Rood (Williams 
1844), and who had gone out some years before to 
Xatal. It is related that after her departure to the 
mission field, Mr. Pixley found written on the fly-leaf 
of his Bible in her handwriting, "When you think of 
the blessings of the gospel, then remember the perish- 
ing heathen." 

On October 25, 1855, he with his wife sailed from 
Boston in the sailing vessel Springbok for Cape Town, 
in the expectation of joining the Zulu Mission. It took 
sixty days to reach Cape Town, and nearly three weeks 
more to reach Durban, where they arrived January 20, 
1856. In Xatal he found several American mission- 
aries, among them his brother-in-law, Rev. David Rood, 
and Rev. Hyman A. Wilder (Williams 1845). Mr. 
Pixley went first to Amanzimtoti, his sister's home, but 
soon became located at Amahlongwa, which is about 
forty-three miles southwest of Port Xatal, at the sta- 
tion formerly occupied by Mr. Silas McKinney. As 
the station had been unoccupied for some years, the in- 
fluence of Mr. McKinney's labors had been nearly oblit- 

[363 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

erated, yet after a few months Mr. Pixley could report 
an average Sabbath attendance of nearly 100. In tak- 
ing a retrospective view after eight years of sendee 
there, he wrote, in speaking of certain changes that had 
been wrought: "The mission house has been thor- 
oughly repaired, and, within and without, now presents 
a new and inviting aspect. A good brick chapel has 
been erected, capable of accommodating 150 hearers, 
containing, besides the main rooms, one for a school and 
one for a study. At different intervals, there have been 
erected, one by one, the native houses, now numbering 
eight, inhabited by as many families, the heads of which, 
one or both, give evidence of being Christians, and all 
are decently clothed. . . . 

"A little church has been organized, numbering 
eight. Three of the members were admitted last year. 
At the sound of the bell there now gathers every Sab- 
bath day a congregation that has averaged, during the 
past year, about fifty, more than half of them decently 
clad, and all, generally, behaving with propriety in the 
house of God. Of this number, more than half usu- 
ally attend the Sabbath-school, and many of them can 
now read intelligently. A week-day and a Sabbath 
morning prayer-meeting have been sustained during 
the year, with an attendance of fifteen or twenty, while 
a day school, commenced last year, with children in 
part from the station and in part from the heathen 
kraals, has been continued with increasing interest to 
the present time." 

After twelve years spent in Amahlongwa, he went 
in 1871 to Amanzimtoti, where he was stationed three 
years, engaged in teaching in the theological school and 
superintending station work. But the greater part of 
his long period of service was spent in Inanda (eighteen 
miles north of Durban), where he had charge of the 
station and out-stations and superintended much build- 

[364] 



Biographical Sketches 

ing. For twenty-five years he was also the treasurer 
of the mission. 

Of all the veterans in the service of the American 
Board, Mr. Pixley, at the time of his death, was the 
oldest active missionary, his period of service lacking 
but little of three score years. In 1906 the American 
Zulu Mission celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the 
arrival of Mr. Pixley in Natal. One evening at the an- 
nual meeting was devoted to "Father Pixley," as the cen- 
tral figure, when he gave an interesting account of his 
life. One, who had been a colleague for twenty-five 
years, spoke of him as a father, friend, and brother, em- 
phasizing particularly his characteristic humility. One 
of his daughters spoke of the dangers through which he 
had passed and his escape from them, while others re- 
lated anecdotes to show the love of the natives for him. 
One who gave an account of this celebration, in refer- 
ring to the change witnessed by Mr. Pixley wrote : "At 
the time of Mr. Pixley's arrival the mission 'reserves' 
had not been granted, there were no schools, no build- 
ings at Inanda, no church organization. He sees now 
twenty-four churches, with 200 places of regular wor- 
ship and over 4000 communicants, — a self-supporting 
constituency, — and seventy-six schools, with 100 teach- 
ers and over 3000 pupils." 

He had the satisfaction of a long life, being able 
to preach up to near the very end, while as a friend and 
counsellor he enjoyed the confidence and affection both 
of his colleagues and the natives. 

It was a pleasing episode in Mr. Pixley's life when, 
in 1910, two Williams graduates of that year — Messrs. 
R. D. Ely and Griffith — while voyaging up the east 
coast of Africa stopped at Inanda to visit this fellow 
alumnus of near three score years' standing. Of this 
visit Mr. Ely writes: "It was in August, 1910, that 
Ted Griffith and I saw Mr. Pixley. He was at that 

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Williams College and Missions 

time, I believe, eighty-one years old. His hair was 
snowy white; he was quite bent and moved with some 
little difficulty. But his eyes were clear/ and his mind 
very alert. He told us of Williams back in the 'fifties,' 
and retained to a wonderful degree the memories of his 
college days. I made a few notes in a diary at the time 
from which I quote — 'We had dinner at Stephen Pix- 
ley's, Williams '52. Soon after graduating Pixley 
went to Africa, where he has been working against tre- 
mendous odds for the upbuilding of the natives. He 
was intensely interested in the Williams of to-day and 
eagerly drank in all we could tell him. Then he told us 
of his college days. The place has changed in material 
things, but the boys were much the same then as now. 
After dinner Ted sat down at the little organ, and 
played some of the college songs, the two of us singing 
for all we were worth. The old man's eyes filled and his 
head, white with the years, sank low on his breast, and 
we knew that his heart was back in our little valley.' ' 
In his long period of service Mr. Pixley accom- 
plished much as a teacher and preacher and witnessed 
the ingathering of many souls into the church, but per- 
haps his most important work is what he did on the 
Zulu Bible. At the time of his going to Africa, the 
historical books of the Old Testament, Psalms, Mat- 
thew, and Romans had already been translated into 
Zulu. The work of translating the remainder being 
apportioned among the members of the mission, Mr. 
Pixley translated Philippians, part of Job, and portions 
of other books; and, after the death of Mr. Abraham, 
was appointed to revise all. When the translation was 
completed Mr. Pixley took the work to America for 
printing, and in 1883 had the satisfaction of seeing the 
whole Bible given for the first time to the Zulus in their 
own language. With this important event his name will 
always be associated. Besides the portions of the Bible 

[366] 



Biographical Sketches 

translated by him and the letters published in the Mis- 
sionary Herald, he also prepared and published school 
text-books for use on the field. 

Mr. Pixley married, October 18, 1855, Louisa, 
daughter of Deacon Seth and Martha (Alden) Healy, 
of Chesterfield, Massachusetts. 

Of seven children born to them, four are living: 
Mary Charlotte, who is on the mission field where her 
father labored; Albert Alden, a machinist in Spring- 
field, Massachusetts; Grace Louisa, a nurse; Sophia 
Algina, a teacher in Lake wood, New Jersey. 

Another daughter, Miss Martha H. Pixley, a grad- 
uate of Mount Holyoke College, who had been for over 
twenty years a missionary under the American Board 
in Natal, died in California, June 1, 1912. 

Mrs. Louisa Pixley died at Lindley, Natal, Sep- 
tember 30, 1900, having nearly completed forty-five 
years of missionary service of a most faithful charac- 
ter, and having visited America only twice in the whole 
forty-five years, first in 1881, and again in 1898. 

The following letter from Rev. Dr. Lewellyn 
Pratt of Norwich, Connecticut, who, at the time of 
writing (June, 1911), was one of the six living class- 
mates of Mr. Pixley, gives some interesting reminis- 
cences of the college life. 

"In the class of '52 and throughout the college Pix- 
ley won universal respect. He had come to work his 
way through, and he bent himself to the task with the 
same diligence and persistence that have characterized 
his subsequent career as pioneer, educator, translator, 
and foundation builder in South Africa. Whatever 
work — care of recitation rooms, monitorship, ringing of 
chapel bell — the college offered, he accepted cheerfully 
and discharged efficiently, as some tardy and delinquent 
men found to their cost. He earned for himself, in 
keeping time for the college, the honorary title of *S. 

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Williams College and Missions 

T. D.' (Sacri Tintinnabuli Dinglor), a title that our 
General Catalogue has failed to recognize. 

"He was too studious, too busy, too serious to have 
much leisure for sports or social diversion. His prep- 
aration for college, like that of most of us at that time, 
was meager, and the diversion he could allow himself 
from study was found in the work he did for his sup- 
port, and little time in his four years ran to waste. 
Thus he was fitting himself for the varied demands of 
the laborious and strenuous life that he has led in the 
fifty-five years he has spent in mission service. Writ- 
ing to his class forty years after leaving college he said : 
'I am Jack-of-all-trades. Sundays I am to preach; 
week days I am the servant of all who come to me : now, 
it is to extract a tooth; the next hour medicine is to be 
dispensed; then I overlook native servants in farm 
work; some days I do a bit of carpenter's work, then 
try my hand at blacksmithing ; look after the Sunday 
and day schools ; for over twenty years have been treas- 
urer for the mission and receive, disburse and account 
for £3000 yearly; conduct prayer and inquiry meet- 
ings; and on Saturdays meet the native helpers to study 
and prepare them for their Sunday work. Such is mis- 
sionary life here in Natal.' His life plan was formed 
before he entered college and he made everything con- 
tribute to inuring himself to hard work. In his Fresh- 
man year he connected himself with the Mills Theo- 
logical Society; the theme of his Junior oration was 
'The Missionary Life,' and the honorary appointment 
on the Commencement stage was entitled 'Missionary 
Oration.' 

"It is no surprise to those who knew him in college 
that his painstaking and thorough scholarship should 
have been employed when the Bible was to be trans- 
lated into Zulu, and that his devotion should hold him on 
the field to his eighty-second year; and we can rejoice 

[368] 



Biographical Sketches 

with him in the joy of harvest as he is permitted to look 
out on a score and more of self-sustaining churches that 
have sprung from the mission whose beginnings he 
helped to start, and to see large cities and a nation 
where he found a wilderness and groups of savages." 

William Sidney Potter, from Shelby, New York, 
was born February 6, 1827. He entered college as a 
Sophomore in 1849. He apparently did not study 
theology but soon after graduation went with his class- 
mate, John Kellogg Harris, as a teacher to the Choc- 
taw nation. He had no formal appointment from the 
American Board, but he labored in connection with this 
mission for more than a year and the Missionary Her- 
ald contains a few references to his work. He is 
reported at first as an assistant missionary at Stock- 
bridge, and then as a preacher at Bennington. 
The report in the Missionary Herald for 1854 speaks 
of a day school which had been taught at Bennington, 
the number of pupils being forty-nine, with an average 
of thirty. The report adds : "Mr. Potter has spared no 
pains to make it a good school; and the progress of the 
children is very manifest." 

He died at Good Land of typhoid fever, August 31, 
1854, at the age of 27. Mr. Stark, one of his associates 
in the mission, wrote of him: "The thought of dying 
produced no fear. Though he loved the work of preach- 
ing Christ to the Choctaws, he was ready to depart." 
The Annual Report of the American Board spoke of 
his death as occurring "after having shown himself a 
sincere and earnest laborer in his Master's service." 

Bela Newton Seymour, son of Ardon A. and 
Orpah (Collins) Seymour, was born in East Granville, 
Massachusetts, March 26, 1829. The family traces its 
descent from Richard Seymour as the first immigrant 

[369] 



Williams College and Missions 

ancestor in America. Richard Seymour came from 
Chelmsford, Essex County, England, to Hartford, 
Connecticut, in 1639, and was one of those settlers who 
received land "by courtesie of the town." He was 
also one of the signers of the agreement for the plant- 
ing of Norwalk, Connecticut, June 19, 1650, and was 
there soon after with the first planters. The Seymour 
family is one of great antiquity and great distinction 
in England, being traced in two distinct lines back to 
Henry III. According to one genealogical record, 
Richard Seymour was the great-grandson of Edward 
Seymour, Duke of Somerset, eldest brother of Queen 
Jane Seymour, the third wife of Henry VIII. 

The father of Bela Newton Seymour was a farmer 
and was inured to toil on a rocky farm. Both father 
and mother were strong characters, faithful students of 
the Scriptures, and led lives of prayer fulness. 

The son fitted for college under his pastor, Rev. Dr. 
Timothy Mather Cooley (Yale 1792). Dr. Cooley 
was one of that interesting type of the New England 
minister who was found more frequently in the earlier 
part of the last century than at the present time. Al- 
though he was an able preacher, possessed of superior 
intellectual ability, and an accurate and thorough classi- 
cal scholar, he preferred a small salary in a small place 
to a larger salary in a more important town. He was 
settled in East Granville, on February 3, 1796, at a 
salary of $300, and continued in full discharge of the 
office of the ministry for fifty-eight years, until 1854, 
when he was released from pulpit duty, but not from 
the pastoral relation, which he held until his death in 
1859. From 1812 until his death he was a member of 
the Board of Trustees of this college. 

Soon after his settlement he opened a classical 
school in his own house and continued it for most of his 
life. He is said to have taught more than 800 youths, 

[370] 



Biographical Sketches 

besides superintending the studies of several young 
men preparing for the ministry. His career as pastor 
and teacher was thus very similar to that of his 
contemporary, Rev. Moses Hallock of Plainfield, 
Massachusetts. 

It is presumed that young Seymour was well fitted 
for college, which he entered as a Freshman in 1848. 
He became a member of the Philologian Society, and 
took good rank as a scholar, graduating with the ap- 
pointment of an Oration. He was one of the speakers 
at Commencement, his subject being "Thought and 
Language." 

After graduation he pursued a course in theology 
at Union Seminary during the years 1852-55. He was 
ordained by a Congregational Council at Granville, 
Massachusetts, June 20, 1855. At the close of his sem- 
inary course he received an appointment from the 
American Board to establish a mission in the Mar- 
quesas Islands. This project, which apparently in- 
cluded the plan of sending to the Marquesas mission- 
aries from the Sandwich Islands, was twofold in its de- 
sign, combining with the regular work of the mission 
the plan of industrial schools. The project failed, ow- 
ing possibly, in part, to the arrival at the Marquesas, 
about this time, of French missionaries, but in part to 
the dishonesty of the man to whom the industrial part 
had been intrusted. This person, having in hand the 
money that had been devoted to the mission, and having 
intrusted to his name the generous equipment, proved 
false, and taking possession of the goods when they 
reached the Pacific Coast, disappeared, leaving Mr. and 
Mrs. Seymour in San Francisco, stripped of nearly 
everything. 

Mr. and Mrs. Seymour then entered heart and soul 
into the Home Missionary work in California, where 
they labored for about seventeen years and were gen- 

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Williams College and Missions 

nine pioneers, forming seven churches and erecting 
buildings for five. Mr. Seymour was stated supply 
from 1856 to 1859 in Oroville, where he had gathered 
a small Congregational church; from 1859 to 1860 in 
Camptonville ; and from 1861 to 1865 he was stated 
supply in Presbyterian churches in Alvarado and Cen- 
treville. After holding a pastorate from 1865 to 1872 in 
a large Congregational church in Hay wards, Califor- 
nia, he was for fourteen years stated supply for various 
churches in New England; being for one year each in 
Springfield and Walpole, Massachusetts; from 1874 to 
1879, in New Ipswich, New Hampshire; from 1879 to 
1883, in Vernon, Connecticut; from 1883 to 1887, in 
Huntington, Connecticut. He then was pastor of a 
church in Washington, D. C, from 1887 to 1893, and 
remained in Washington, without charge, for ten years. 
In most of the places where he resided in California, 
he was also superintendent of public schools. He was 
also for a time a member of the Vigilance Committee. 
In 1878 he was a member of the Legislature in New 
Hampshire. 

He died of heart failure at the home of his son at 
Interlaken, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, February 
27, 1903. 

Mr. and Mrs. Seymour were thoroughly infused 
with the missionary spirit, and by strict economy they 
were able in quiet ways to maintain a large share in all 
Congregational work, whether in organizing new 
churches and building meeting-houses in the newer 
parts of our own land, or in contributing to the work 
in other lands. A lasting remembrance of their inter- 
est in foreign missions is seen in connection with the 
Foochow Mission, where a "Seymour Memorial" has 
been gathered in the form of a contribution to the 
women's work of that mission for a building. 

Mr. Seymour was married June 28, 1855, at Tri- 

[372] 



Biographical Sketches 

angle, New York, to Miss Emily Morse, daughter of 
John Sanford and Anna (Parsons) Morse. She died 
in Washington, November, 1901. 

They were survived by two sons: Alfred Morse 
Seymour, who was graduated at Amherst College in 
1880, and now resides at Fort Washington, Montgom- 
ery County, Pennsylvania; and Rev. Edward P. Sey- 
mour (Amherst 1884), of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 



CLASS OF 1853 

Arthur Mitchell was born in Hudson, New 
York, August 13, 1835. He was the son of Matthew 
and Susan (Swain) Mitchell. His grandparents were 
Laban and Elizabeth (Freeborn) Mitchell and Gilbert 
and Margaret (Barnard) Swain. The immigrant an- 
cestor was Richard Mitchell, who came from the Isle 
of Wight and settled in Rhode Island in 1708. Arthur 
Mitchell had a goodly inheritance in his ancestry, the 
marked characteristic of whom was goodness. Mat- 
thew Mitchell, the father, was of Quaker descent, 
known for the poise and sagacity of his nature, and rep- 
resenting the gentle and benevolent spirit so generally 
characteristic of the Quakers. It was the testimony of 
the son that he did not remember ever hearing from his 
father an uncharitable remark concerning any one. 
Matthew Mitchell at first learned the cooper's trade, 
but later became a dealer in oil and whale products. 
He was a man of prominence in the community and 
became one of the directors of Washington Life In- 
surance Company. He had great physical vigor, which 
he retained to the advanced age of eighty-four. His 
wife was noted in her youth for remarkable beauty 
and became the efficient and faithful helpmeet of her 
husband. 

The son is described as having in his youth a pecul- 

[ 373] 



Williams College and Missions 

iarly frank and open countenance, suggestive of the 
kindness and truthfulness of his nature, sure to win at 
once the confidence and affection of those about him. 
This youthfulness of look and manner remained peren- 
nial. Living to be a grandfather, he had neither wrin- 
kles nor gray hairs. 

He pursued his preparatory studies partly in Hud- 
son, and partly in Mr. Warner's school at Stockbridge, 
Massachusetts. He entered college as a Freshman at 
the age of fourteen. In college he joined the Sigma 
Phi Society, the Mills Theological Society, the Lyceum 
of Natural History, and the Philologian Society, of 
which last he was one of the presidents. He took good 
position as a scholar, and graduated with Phi Beta 
Kappa rank. He was one of the speakers at Com- 
mencement, having an Oration for an appointment, the 
subject of his address being "Labor." It was in col- 
lege that he became a Christian, having previously been 
somewhat inclined to scepticism. With him conversion 
meant the giving of his whole heart and life to his Mas- 
ter. Although he was the youngest member of his 
class, of small stature, and boyish-looking, he at once 
set to work to win souls for Christ. In the complete- 
ness of his consecration he felt that he must give up his 
Greek-letter society, lest its ties should interfere with 
his influence with others. Nowhere do enthusiasm and 
personality count for more than in a college commu- 
nity. His enthusiasm was contagious, and his person- 
ality made him a power for good in the whole college. 
The opportunities he found for Christian work and the 
environment in which he was placed formed a good 
school of practical Christian life. Lie was fortunate in 
being at Williams when President Mark Hopkins and 
his brother Albert were at the height of their influence. 
If there was less of the religious life which has come in 
with the growth of the Young Men's Christian Associ- 

[374] 



Biographical Sketches 

ations, there was then more of religious instruction. 
The age of speculation and doubt had already set in, 
and it was worth much to a young man to be under the 
influence of instructors who could teach with authority, 
and who, having been over disputed ground, had ob- 
tained a Christian faith which could but be a tonic to 
the faith of the pupils. Dr. Mitchell never ceased to 
feel the inspiration that came from the intellectual 
supremacy of Mark Hopkins, and to regard him as the 
teacher who had given strength to his convictions of re- 
ligious truth and had made the Kingdom of God seem 
real. 

Although he had decided to study for the ministry, 
on graduation he accepted a tutorship in Lafayette Col- 
lege, and found in the work of teaching an intellectual 
discipline of permanent value. To this were added the 
advantages of foreign travel, when, in company with his 
college mate, Charles A. Stoddard, he made an exten- 
sive tour through Europe and the East, visiting the 
scenes of Bible history and the mission stations of Syria 
and Egypt. 

Entering Union Theological Seminary in 1856, he 
combined study and Christian work as he had done in 
college. His helpful influence was felt not only in 
the Sunday-school and revival work in which he en- 
gaged, but upon his fellow students, one of whom said 
of him: "His companionship was then, as ever after, 
stimulating and uplifting. Through all these years my 
affection and admiration for him have continued. 
Without reservation, I say I have never known a more 
earnest and consecrated spirit than his." In the semi- 
nary, as in college, he received instruction that was at- 
tended with spiritual stimulus, coming under teachers 
the power of whose personality continued with him 
through life. 

Graduating in 1859, at the age of twenty-four, he 

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Williams College and Missions 

accepted a call to a Presbyterian church in Richmond, 
Virginia, being ordained by Presbytery in New 
York, May 9. Notwithstanding his youth, he soon 
won the entire confidence of the congregation and com- 
munity. By rare combination of superior intellectual 
gifts with the highest moral qualities, he became a 
preacher of unusual power. He believed in selecting 
for his themes the great common truths of the gospel, 
feeling that sermons which deal directly with faith, re- 
pentance, and a godly life are what people need and 
really desire. One who knew him well has thus ana- 
lyzed his power as a preacher: "The conscientious 
study and preparation, the enthusiasm with which the 
truth filled his mind, the manifest sincerity and depth 
of his own convictions, the sympathetic voice and man- 
ner, the illuminated face, the loving, winning, pleading 
expression of the whole man, — all this combined to 
make him a very effective preacher." To his high 
praise it is to be said that nowhere was his preaching so 
effective as among his own people, where his godly life 
gave emphasis to his words. But the success with 
which he was meeting was soon interrupted by the 
Civil War. When Virginia passed the ordinance of 
secession, feeling his place was in the North, he first 
took his family through the lines, reaching the Union 
army just as it was entering Baltimore. Sending his 
family homeward he returned to his charge, but public 
sentiment soon became such as seriously to interfere 
with his usefulness. With great peril he succeeded in 
getting through the lines to the North, leaving his val- 
uable library and household goods to be confiscated by 
the Confederate Government. The generosity of his 
nature was shown when, at the close of the war, he re- 
visited his former parishioners and contributed to the 
needs of some who had been impoverished by the war. 
He was next called to be pastor of the Second Pres- 

[376] 



Biographical Sketches 

byterian Church in Morristown, New Jersey, where he 
remained from 1861 to 1868. There, as in Richmond, 
his aim in preaching was to win the unconverted and 
to confirm believers. But in both these churches he 
exhibited what became a marked characteristic of all 
his subsequent preaching, a glowing enthusiasm for for- 
eign missions. It is because of what he did for this 
cause in the pulpit, and especially as Secretary of the 
Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, that a sketch 
of his life is given in this volume. Though he felt that 
the redemption of the world was a theme sublime 
enough to be made a hobby, he gave hearty support to 
every other form of benevolence. As might be ex- 
pected from the noble qualities of his soul, he was 
an ideal pastor, loving his people and loved by 
them in turn; possessing that wide sympathy, that 
rejoices with them that rejoice and weeps with them 
that weep. 

In 1868 he was called to the First Presbyterian 
Church in Chicago. Though this church was a large 
and influential one, and he was but thirty-three years 
of age, he soon took a commanding position not only 
among his own people but throughout the city. He 
was the same plain and practical preacher in Chicago 
that he had been in Richmond and Morristown, while 
his efforts in the cause of foreign missions were in- 
creased. His twelve years' pastorate in Chicago was 
marked by his persistent and successful efforts to see the 
churches of that city possessed with a zeal for missions. 
Sometimes the subject was pressed with more persist- 
ency than was acceptable to the people, but it cannot be 
doubted that to-day there is in the churches of Chicago 
a more general interest in the cause of missions because 
Dr. Mitchell once preached there. It was natural that 
he should have been solicited at that time to accept a 
secretaryship in the Foreign Board, which solicitation 

[377] 



Williams College and Missions 

he declined through his love for the pastorate and the 
feeling that he was in it doing more for the su- 
preme cause than he could as Secretary of the Foreign 
Board. It is related that when, being invited about 
this time to accept a professorship in this college, he 
visited Williamstown and preached on a Sabbath, Dr. 
Hopkins took him by the hand and said: "One who 
can preach like that should not leave the pastorate. 
Stay where you are." 

But his interest in the foreign field did not lead him 
to neglect work nearer home. Pie was fully awake to 
the moral desolations of Chicago and loved to preach 
to the masses who had no church home. In his patri- 
otism and his broad view of the Kingdom of God there 
was no antagonism between work in the foreign field 
and home missionary work in the newer portions of our 
own land. 

While he was ever the edifying preacher to those 
who were of the household of faith, his honest fidelity 
and the charming personality which had made him an 
influential member of the college, now made him a 
preacher of peculiar power with worldly men. Those 
who knew him in business matters connected with 
church work found in him an efficient and broad- 
minded man of affairs whose courtesy was unfailing. 

There were combined in his nature the somewhat 
diverse qualities that belonged to the beloved disciple. 
Gentleness and modesty were conspicuous elements in 
his character, but in certain emergencies he could be- 
come a veritable son of thunder. It is related that 
when an election in Chicago had been carried by most 
unblushing frauds, and good men, though shamed, stood 
helpless and hopeless, Dr. Mitchell went at midnight 
to watch the precinct that there might be no manipula- 
tion of the votes which had been cast, and found evi- 
dence which led to a new election. By his courage he 

[378 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

had single-handed overthrown an election that had been 
carried by fraud. It was on this or some similar occa- 
sion when, a daily paper having suggested "frightening 
the minister" out of his efforts at reform, Dr. R. W. 
Patterson remarked to a friend, "They'll have a good 
time of it frightening Dr. Mitchell off." 

In 1880, Dr. Mitchell was called from Chicago to 
Cleveland, Ohio, where he became pastor of the First 
Presbyterian Church. Here his future was destined to 
copy fair his past. He soon became known as the same 
earnest preacher, the beloved pastor, and the pro- 
nounced advocate of foreign missions. It has already 
been intimated that while a pastor in Chicago he had 
been offered the position as Secretary of the Foreign 
Board. When in 1885 he was again offered the posi- 
tion, he accepted, and for the remaining years of his 
life gave himself entirely to the cause which he so dearly 
loved, and to which he was wholly consecrated. In the 
work his zeal knew no bounds. He probably would 
have lived longer in a pastorate, but he spared not him- 
self, once saying to a friend, "A man is good for noth- 
ing but to be used up." Repeatedly during the term 
of his secretaryship he had other fields of usefulness 
opened to him, and he was led to weigh the chances of 
his being able to bear the numerous burdens of so re- 
sponsible a position. In vain his friends and associates 
urged him to seek some diversion and relaxation; once 
indeed he wrote an earnest letter to a friend saying: 
"Get me a little pastorate. I shall die here before my 
time." But almost as soon as the friend began to seek 
for a pastorate for him, there came a telegram saying: 
"Stay that move, I must remain here if I die." It 
could be literally said of him, the zeal of his Father's 
house ate him up. About three years before his death 
he visited the mission fields of the East. This was a 
diversion, but not a rest, for him. The opportunities 

[379] 



Williams College and Missions 

for speaking which came to him he could not resist. 
At Nanking he became blind while preaching from a 
manuscript, but kept on and finished his discourse ex- 
temporaneously. Subsequently, at Bangkok, he again 
became blind while discussing missionary matters with 
Dr. McFarland. He kept on talking to his friend until 
he fell to the floor, speechless, and paralyzed on one side 
of his face. Such was the courage and indefatigable 
spirit of the man. He returned to his post from his 
journey with health greatly impaired, and though on 
his return, he was given a three months' leave of ab- 
sence for rest, he never fully recovered his strength. 
In the spring of 1892 he took another three months for 
rest, and in the following November he went to Flor- 
ida, after which his health failed rapidly. The follow- 
ing extract is taken from a highly appreciative article 
by Rev. Dr. F. F. Ellinwood, published in the Mission- 
ary Review of the World for 1893, to which article the 
writer of this sketch is indebted for many facts and 
thoughts: "Up to the very time of his collapse, in 
November, he retained all his matchless eloquence in 
pleading for missions. Perhaps the very grandest ef- 
fort that he ever put forth was made in a speech of over 
an hour before the Synod of New York, convened at 
Albany. Dr. John G. Paton, the hero of the New 
Hebrides, who happened to be present, spoke of it as 
the most remarkable missionary address that he had 
ever heard. It shook the Synod like a tempest; but 
alas! it shook also the frail body of the speaker. He 
wrote me afterward from Florida that he had "never 
been the same man after that night." It was a worthy 
farewell plea before the Church and the Christian world 
to remember the nations that have waited so many cen- 
turies for the truth. 

He died in Saratoga, New York, April 24, 1893. 

He received the honorary degree of Doctor of 

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Biographical Sketches 

Divinity from his Alma Mater in 1875. He was trus- 
tee of the college from 1882 to 1887. 

He was married on October 5, 1859, in New York 
City, to Miss Harriet Edith Post, daughter of Alfred 
Charles Post, M.D., and Harriet (Beers) Post, grand- 
daughter of Joel and Elizabeth Post and of Cyrenius 
Eliot and Margaret (Van Ant wept) Beers. Of eight 
children born to them, six are living: Mrs. Susan Mitch- 
ell Ogden, wife of Hollo Ogden, L.H.D. (Williams 
1877), Summit, New Jersey; Miss Alice Mitchell, 
M.D., Woodstock, Landour, India; Miss Harriet Post 
Mitchell, teacher of domestic science; Arthur Mitchell, 
Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy, Lawrence, Kansas; 
Miss Julia Post Mitchell, A.M., teacher of English 
literature. 

CLASS OF 1854 
Walter Halsey Claek, the fourth and youngest 
son of Nathaniel and Hannah (Marsh) Clark, and 
grandson of Reuben and Mary (Peppers) Clark, and 
of James and Mary (Halsey) Marsh, was born in Mil- 
ton-on-the-Hudson, New York, July 2, 1832. Among 
his ancestors were Samuel Clark, who came from Dev- 
onshire, England, via Boston to Wethersfield, Connect- 
icut, in 1636, and Rev. Francis Peppers, who came 
to New Jersey in 1743, from near Dublin, Ireland. 
The grandfather, Reuben Clark, was paymaster in the 
Army of the Revolution, and his brother, Jeremiah, 
was a prominent legislator in New York. Abraham 
Clark, an uncle of the grandfather, James Marsh, 
was one of the signers of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. Nathaniel Clark, the father, was a 
farmer by occupation. He is described as one who 
lived a quiet, exemplary life, and as having the con- 
fidence and love of all. Mr. Clark's ancestors on 
both sides are spoken of as plain, "common" peo- 

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Williams College and Missions 

pie, but positively religious, and hence thrifty and 
influential for good. 

Walter Halsey Clark fitted for college at the Corn- 
wall Collegiate Institute and entered Williams as a 
Sophomore in 1851. The class of 1854 was an unusu- 
ally large one for those days, and numbered among its 
members several who attained high distinction in life. 
Among the prominent members of the class were Ab- 
bott Eliot Kittredge, William T. R. Marvin, Elbridge 
Mix, George Washington Northup, and Charles 
Augustus Stoddard. In college he was a member of 
the Philotechnian Society, and of the Mills Theological 
Society. He was a successful student and had the Com- 
mencement appointment of an Oration. 

After graduation, Clark taught for a time in Corn- 
wall, New York, and in 1856 entered Auburn Theo- 
logical Seminary, where he remained two years and 
then took the last year of theological study at Union 
Theological Seminary, where he also attended medical 
lectures. He was ordained June 30, 1859, by the 
Presbytery of North River, New York, and soon 
received an appointment from the American Board as 
a missionary to the Gaboon Mission, for which he sailed 
on the 27th of September of the same year, arriving 
January 28, 1860. He was at first stationed at Nen- 
genenge and Baraka, two points near the coast of 
West Africa. While there he wrote for the periodicals 
of the American Board several interesting letters on 
"African Customs." The climate in that part of Africa 
proving too unhealthy for endurance, on January 1, 
1861, he joined the Corisco Mission of the Presbyterian 
Board. In October, 1862, he wrote to the secretary of 
his class: "I date again from 'Corisco the Beautiful,' 
as Du Chaillu, the 'gorilla man,' calls it. My home is 
on a beautiful bluff, overlooking the ocean to the north- 
west. For five months I have been alone, and the sta- 

[382] 



Biographical Sketches 

tion, with seventeen boys of all ages, has been in my 
care; so you can believe that I am very busy." In July, 
1863, he visited the United States, where he remained 
something over a year, to recruit his health, sailing 
again for Corisco, in January, 1865. While he was in 
America, he had charge of printing the Gospel of St. 
John and the Book of Acts in the Benga (Corisco) lan- 
guage. Three years more of labor in Africa so told 
upon his health that he returned finally to the United 
States in 1868. For upwards of a year he continued 
labor for the Presbyterian Board, in translating and 
supervising their African publications. Being com- 
pelled, by reason of poor health, to abandon the hope of 
returning to Africa, he went to Nebraska in 1870, v/here 
he did faithful pioneer work for several years in serv- 
ing churches in Ponca, 1870-71; Elk Valley, 1872-74; 
and Daily Branch, 1874-78. In this last year, finding 
his health failing, he started a school at Silver Ridge, 
in the same State. This position he held till 1887, when 
he became Secretary and Treasurer of Park College, 
at Parkville, Missouri. This continued to be his resi- 
dence until his death. He died of senile pneumonia 
March 21, 1912. 

With a modesty which was entirely characteristic 
of Mr. Clark, he never gave out any sketch of his life 
and labors, but the record given above, which has been 
gleaned largely from the Class History, shows that he 
ever had the spirit of the true missionary, whether his 
station was on the west coast of Africa, or on the west- 
ern part of this continent. He had the satisfaction of 
a long life, and was able to continue in active service 
till near the end. 

A few months before the death of Mr. Clark, Rev. 
Dr. Charles A. Stoddard, a classmate who knew him 
well, wrote: "From the start to the present time he 
has been a self-denying, conscientious, useful man. He 

[383] 



Williams College and Missions 

spent ten years in the hardest sort of missionary work 
in Africa, and then came to work as hard in connection 
with Park College in Missouri. He has given his life, 
his time, his labor, physical and mental, and his chil- 
dren to the cause of Christ and Christian missions, and 
has lived on such meager earnings that he could not 
raise enough money to come to the fiftieth anniversary 
of his class. (We did not know that this was the reason 
until too late or he would have been there). A more 
transparent, consecrated, unselfish Christian man and 
minister of the gospel never lived." 

At the funeral services, President Lowell M. 
McAfee, of Park College, after speaking of Mr. Clark 
as a writer and preacher, and as a warm friend and 
helper of the students, continued: "But while I think 
of Mr. Clark as the students' friend, I like to claim 
Mr. Clark as my friend. My association with him was 
not very intimate in the early years, but with each suc- 
ceeding year my association became more and more in- 
timate. I have gone to him in times of trouble ; I have 
gone to him in times of joy. I have always found him 
the same. I have found him always ready to listen, to 
help in any way that he could. Never, in my experi- 
ence, did Mr. Clark divulge a confidence." 

On the same occasion, Rev. A. D. Wolfe, Ph.D., 
said: "It would be absurd to speak of 'Father Clark' 
as a great man in the ordinary sense of the word. He 
occupied a quiet place. He was a most unpretentious 
man. But as I look back at the twenty-five years it has 
been my privilege to be associated with him, I feel I 
lived in the presence of a great soul. . . . 

"When I came here as a lad, he gave me the word 
of welcome ; came to see me, and helped me to get over 
those first few days of homesickness; and that is what 
he has done for many teachers and students since the 
day he came to Park College. He visited the sick. In 

[384] 



Biographical Sketches 

the early days, before the hospital came into being, Mr. 
Clark went to the dormitories and to our homes in the 
village with medicine and cheering word. He has been 
the helpful one, the one who gave service so quietly, so 
warm-heartedly, to all of us. He has been most deeply 
interested in the spiritual life of Park College, and in 
the teaching life of those who make up Park College. 
There has been no good work that he has not given his 
warm encouragement and help. And he has not grown 
narrow and crabbed with age. His outlook upon the 
world, as Christ gave us to do, was always bright and 
cheery. He has never been afraid of scientific prog- 
ress. He was always open-hearted to truth and worth 
and to all the truth might bring. And so I am glad 
to bring this brief and inadequate tribute of love." 

Mr. Clark married at Corisco, January 1, 1861, 
Miss Maria Mitchell Jackson of Xenia, Ohio, 
daughter of David and Anna (Mitchell) Jackson, and 
a descendant of David Mitchell, who was born in 1777 
in Scotland or Ireland, and coming to this country, set- 
tled in Pennsylvania. This bit of history quite clearly 
indicates a Scotch-Irish ancestry. Mrs. Clark is still 
living, and resides with a son at Lyons, Nebraska. 

Of their six children five are still living: Rev. Wal- 
ter Jackson Clark, a graduate of Park College, in the 
class of 1888, and of Union Theological Seminary in 
1891, a missionary in Lahore, India; William Robin- 
son Clark, M.D., Parkville, Missouri; Caroline Roe 
Clark, formerly a missionary in Firozpur, India; Rev. 
James Griggs Clark, pastor of a Presbyterian church 
at Lyons, Nebraska; and Rev. Edgar David 
Clark, pastor of a Presbyterian church at Lexington, 
Nebraska. 

Besides the translation of portions of the New Tes- 
tament, and the writings already referred to, Mr. Clark 
translated some hymns into Benga (the Corsico lan- 

[ 385 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

guage), and in 1910 published a "History of Platte 
Presbytery." 

CLASS OF 1855 

David Coit Scudder was born in Boston, Massa- 
chusetts, October 27, 1835. He was the seventh 
child of Charles, and the eldest of the children of 
Charles and Sarah Lathrop (Coit) Scudder, grand- 
son of David and Desire (Gage) Scudder, and a 
descendant of John Scudder, who emigrated from Lon- 
don, England, in 1635, settling in Charlestown, Mas- 
sachusetts, and in 1640 at Barnstable, Massachusetts. 
On his mother's side, through the Manwarings and 
Saltonstalls, his lineage is traced to Governor Win- 
throp. Thus the father and mother were Puritan in 
origin and, in the conduct of the household, they pre- 
served the best principles of Puritan life. When there 
occurred the separation of the Congregational Church 
into two sects, the father became a firm supporter of 
the Orthodox belief and was a prominent member of 
the Orthodox connection and a deacon in Union Church 
(Essex Street). While the home was a Puritan 
home, where the Assembly's Shorter Catechism was 
learned and the Sabbath strictly observed, yet it was 
a home where abundant, rational enjoyment prevailed. 
Not a little of the brightening of the home life was due 
to the personal presence of the father, who was de- 
scribed as the sunniest-minded of men as he was physi- 
cally the heartiest. A happy circumstance in the home 
life of David Scudder was the distinction of his father. 
Charles Scudder had been a hardware and commission 
merchant in Boston for fifty years, so that when he 
retired he was widely known, and his reputation for 
honor, integrity, and sound judgment was of the high- 
est kind. That the home was one where high intellec- 
tual ideals prevailed is evidenced by the fact that three 

[386] 



Biographical Sketches 

brothers besides David received a college education. 
These were Evarts (Williams 1854), who became a 
clergyman; Samuel Hubbard (Williams 1857), the 
scientist; and Horace Elisha (Williams 1858), the 
author. To the training and environment of the home 
must be added the influence of the Sunday-school and 
grammar school. Such a home was naturally open to 
persons whom it was worth while to know; and espe- 
cially were missionaries welcome guests. One of the 
most noticeable of these was Rev. John Scudder, mis- 
sionary to India, who, though only distantly related 
by blood, became strongly attached to the family by 
the band of a common object. That these visits had 
not a little to do with forming the life purposes of one 
member of the household may be inferred from a paper 
prepared by David Scudder in which he enumerates 
as the causes of his missionary purpose, first, the in- 
fluence of Mrs. Lothrop, the school-teacher, second, his 
mother's wishes, and third, "Dr. John Scudder's per- 
sonal interest and influence over me." 

A not unimportant event in the life of David Scud- 
der was the removal of the family, when he was eleven 
years of age, to a place which was then on the country 
side of the city of Roxbury, three miles from Boston. 
Here the restless activity of the boy, which had suf- 
fered some restraint in the city, found wide field for 
exercise. Here, too, his taste for farm life, for which 
he had a strong inclination, could be indulged, while 
he raised vegetables and kept hens and pigs, besides a 
large collection of pets. The occupations and sports 
of country life were good for a boy who was described 
as "half-intoxicated with life, wilful in his love of free- 
dom, and impatient of all restraint." But when in his 
biography, we find this characterization of the lad and 
read further that "he was a troublesome boy, heady and 
determined," "a hard boy to manage," we are to bear 

[ 387] 



Williams College and Missions 

in mind that deep down in his nature were strong love 
and gentleness, and that he ever obeyed fearlessly "an 
educated instinct of pure-toned morality." 

He was fitted for college in the Boston Latin 
School, whither he was sent soon after the removal to 
Roxbury, and where he spent four years. Here, under 
Mr. Charles Short, who was then master of the school, 
David secured an unusually good preparation in the 
classics. The summer before entering college was 
spent on the farm of a relative in Wethersfield, Con- 
necticut, and had he followed his natural inclination, he 
would have been a farmer. By the requirement of his 
father that he should take a year or two of college life 
before definitely deciding upon his life work, he entered 
college as a Freshman in 1851, being one of the young- 
est members of his class. His love of nature and out- 
door life found full satisfaction in the region around 
Williamstown. With boyish enthusiasm he tramped 
through Flora's Glen, or up Stone Hill, or, on holidays, 
up Grey lock or some other mountain, "letting off 
steam" by chanting or singing. He even set traps in 
the woods for rabbits and squirrels and by reason of his 
enthusiasm became a valued member of the Lyceum of 
Natural History. While he was in the full tide of this 
hearty enjoyment there occurred an event which re- 
vealed the fine material of his nature. When there 
came to him the news that his father had suffered seri- 
ous reverses and that greater economy had to be prac- 
ticed at home, David wrote home for permission to 
leave college that he might become a laborer on some 
farm and thus relieve the father of some expense. In 
the meantime he surrendered his room in town, taking 
a cheaper one at the top of West College, and secured 
the position of janitor to a recitation room. 

Of his college years a few reminiscences are given 
by his classmate, Rev. William W. Adams, D.D., who 

[ 388 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

prepared for the Class History a biographical sketch 
of Mr. Scudder. "When 'Dave* entered college," says 
Dr. Adams, "he was nearly sixteen years of age, but 
not more mature than some boys of twelve. He came 
from a suburban home, but was as unsophisticated as 
any boy could be who had been brought up on a farm. 
Home life had been simple, natural, earnestly Chris- 
tian, according to the primitive spirit of New England ; 
and 'Dave' himself had remarkable simplicity of na- 
ture. His tastes were rural and boyish, the developing 
forces healthfully slow in action. All who knew him 
during Freshman year will remember his boyish ap- 
pearance, his white hair, his roundabout, uncovered by 
overcoat in the coldest of weather, his habit of running 
through the streets, his passion for trapping rabbits on 
Stone Hill, his odd humors and explosive laughter. " 
In a letter of recent date, Dr. Adams gives the follow- 
ing words of reminiscence: "Scudder was my very 
intimate friend, — a spontaneous, transparent boy in 
early college days, very impulsive in sunny, kindly, di- 
verse ways, — fond of nature, earnest in untrained as- 
piration, very conscientious and faithful in a religious 
life which began in my room." 

Although, from early years, along with a boyish in- 
clination for a farmer's life, he had seen that he had 
been set apart for a missionary's life, it was not till his 
return from a long winter vacation that he decided the 
question of personal religious duty. With him the 
question of becoming a Christian and that of becoming 
a missionary were inseparably connected. Henceforth 
the missionary idea became with him a ruling purpose. 
This period of his conversion was, in most respects, the 
most important epoch of his life: it not only gave him 
the controlling idea of a life purpose, but it gave a great 
impulse to his intellectual faculties. Simultaneously 
with his conversion there began a revival of religion in 

[889] 



Williams College and Missions 

the college, and he became an active worker among his 
fellow students. His missionary purpose, too, re- 
mained unshaken. He became a zealous and enthusi- 
astic member of the Mills Theological Society, not only 
faithfully performing his allotted duties but entering 
into correspondence with individual missionaries all 
over the world. He wrote letters and took long jour- 
neys in the hope of finding some good likeness of Sam- 
uel J. Mills, from whom the Society took its name. 
Though unsuccessful, and singularly forgetful of good 
or honor for himself, in recognition of his efforts, he was 
elected president of the Society. 

His zeal for missions showed itself in other ways 
also than in the Mills Society. He used his influence 
to persuade others to become missionaries, and by out- 
side readings began to prepare himself more carefully 
for the work he had undertaken. In his missionary 
studies he had the advice of Itev. H. It. Hoisington 
(Williams 1828), who had been at the head of the Bat- 
ticotta school in Ceylon, and who was at this time pas- 
tor of the Congregational Church in Williamstown. It 
was by the suggestion of Mr. Hoisington, who was an 
admirable Tamil scholar, that David took up the study 
of that language. 

In the meantime he was working faithfully in the 
studies of the curriculum, excelling especially in the 
classics, and each succeeding year of his college course 
bore witness to the development of his intellectual 
power. He devoted more time to thinking and writ- 
ing, and papers by him, on "Language" and "One 
Primeval Language," appeared in the Williams Quar- 
terly. He was one of the speakers at Commencement, 
the subject of his address being "Our Country, the 
Moulding Agent of the World." 

The year after graduation he spent at Andover 
Theological Seminary. Here he had the same oppor- 

[390] 



Biographical Sketches 

tunities for outdoor life which he had enjoyed at Wil- 
liamstown, and which he still needed to carry off his 
exuberance. Here there were more opportunities for 
social life in the regular gatherings at the professors' 
houses, which he felt bound to attend that he might 
overcome his constitutional aversion to society. He 
took hold of the regular studies of the course energeti- 
cally, and showed great industry in private reading, 
especially of books in general literature. He found 
special delight in the association with students who were 
to become foreign missionaries. Soon after entering 
the seminary, he had been asked to join a society of 
" Christian Brethren," a society which had been founded 
by Mills, in Williamstown, and had been removed to 
Andover. The membership was limited exclusively to 
those who had devoted themselves to the foreign mis- 
sionary work. The effect of this association upon him 
was most generous, contributing, as it did, to his 
growth, and imparting new zest in his studies. 

During 1858-1857, which his biographer calls "A 
Year of Experiment," his seminary course was inter- 
mitted. That he might obtain a facility of converse 
with the world, and obtain a better knowledge of men 
and of himself, he accepted an opportunity to become 
a Bible colporteur for two months in the neighborhood 
of Orange, New Jersey. After the completion of this 
work, the remainder of the year he spent at his father's 
house, extending his studies more widely and engaging 
in various forms of religious work in the city. 

Returning to Andover in September, 1857, he re- 
sumed his studies where he had left off a year before. 
Outside the studies of the curriculum, he read widely 
in Hindu philosophy, and continued his study of the 
Tamil, in connection with which he pursued some 
investigations into comparative philology. He infused 
new life into the Society of Inquiry, increased the mem- 

[391] 



Williams College and Missions 

bership of the "Brethren" and, to create a general in- 
terest in missions, he with three of his classmates wrote 
a series of papers in the New York Independent. 

Not realizing his expectation to sail for India in the 
autumn after graduating from Andover, he spent two 
years at the home of his father, busy with his studies 
and writing articles for publication. Among other 
studies pursued during this period may be mentioned 
Tamil grammar, South Indian comparative grammar, 
Sanskrit, ancient Hindu history, British Indian history. 
He published in the Boston Recorder twelve papers on 
Ancient Indian Literature, and in the Bibliotheca Sacra 
an essay on the "Aborigines of India," and also in the 
same periodical in two parts, an essay under the title of 
"A Sketch of Hindu Philosophy." 

The last months of this period spent at home were 
unusually busy months. He engaged in manifold 
forms of unceasing activity. Along with his writing 
and his studies, he often preached, took a partial course 
in medicine, held neighborhood meetings, and talked 
often to children, in which occupation he took great 
delight and met with remarkable success. 

He was ordained as a missionary February 25, 
1861, his pastor, Rev. Dr. Nehemiah Adams, preach- 
ing the sermon. On March 11 Mr. Scudder and wife, 
Rev. Edward Webb and Mrs. Webb with two chil- 
dren, returning to the Madura Mission; Rev. John 
Scudder and wife, on their return to the Arcot Mis- 
sion, and a few others, sailed from Boston for Madras, 
which they reached after a voyage of 107 days. 

After spending a few days in Madras, Mr. and 
Mrs. Scudder started for Madura, Mr. Webb and fam- 
ily accompanying them as far as Dindigul, the station 
formerly occupied by them. Here Mr. Scudder and 
wife remained about a fortnight, and were welcomed 
by Mr. Washburn, a college classmate of Mr. Scud- 

[ 8 92 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

der. In August they reached Madura, where they 
were most cordially welcomed by the mission circle 
there and where they remained for seven months, be- 
ing occupied with immediate preparation for a sepa- 
rate station. The new station, to which they removed 
in February, 1862, was Periakulam, one of the most 
populous and influential villages of the Madura dis- 
trict. The village had a church, which had a native 
pastor and a congregation of more than one hundred, 
though at that time sadly divided by a protracted liti- 
gation between the two deacons. In one of his first 
letters from his new station, he gives a full description 
of the scenery around the village which lies in the val- 
ley of Vaigai River, not far from the Pulney Hills, 
which rise to a height of over 8000 feet. The mission- 
ary district, which came under Mr. Scudder's care, was 
about twelve miles in diameter and included many vil- 
lages. The nature of his field required him to make 
many tours. A passage from one of his journal let- 
ters tells of his having visited twenty-five villages 
and preached to 2500 people in the tour of a week. 

One of the interesting features of his work was the 
series of letters which, according to agreement, he 
wrote to such schools in America as should contribute 
to the support of native schools in the Madura Mis- 
sion. Along with the letter writing, preaching, tour- 
ing, teaching, he was ever the assiduous student. Not 
only did he devote much time to acquiring facility in 
the use of the native language, but he was a close stu- 
dent in subjects of philology, Hindu philosophy, and 
Indian antiquity. While spending a summer in the 
Pulney Hills, he made a special investigation among 
the cromlechs, and other ancient remains which were 
found in great abundance in the neighborhood of his 
station. After he decided to become a missionary he 
had spent nine years in making preparation for his dis- 

[893] 



Williams College and Missions 

tinctive work, and with his habits of systematic study 
and broad culture already secured, had he been spared 
many years of service, not only would he have accom- 
plished much in the particular line of mission work, but 
would, undoubtedly, have made important contribu- 
tions to the sciences of philology and archaeology. But 
he made all his culture and study subservient and con- 
tributory to his special work as a missionary. In this 
work he was becoming more and more engrossed. 
This earnestness may be inferred from the following 
extract from a letter written to his mother a few months 
before his death: "I have plenty of work to do and it 
is growing fast upon me. My young head is full of 
all sorts of projects for touring and laboring here, some 
crude enough, and all tumbling helter-skelter over 
each other in my brain. . . . The care of all the 
churches weighs upon me. How can I get more than 
fifty persons out of a church of 150 to come to meet- 
ing on Sunday? How can I get the people to give 
contributions regularly? How can I get more than ten 
boys from this church to attend school? How can I 
start an evening school? How can I, with a force of 
four catechists, preach the gospel effectually to a thou- 
sand villages? Such questions and many more are in 
my mind the whole time. . . . But in spite of all, or 
perhaps more truly on account of all this, I am happy 
and becoming more and more interested in the work. 
If one only goes to work the right way here, he will 
certainly see the fruits soon." 

But these fruits he was not permitted to see. 
While this young missionary, with his enthusiasm and 
enterprise, was planning for a reformation, and was 
exciting expectations of uncommon usefulness, he was 
suddenly called away on November 19, 1862, before the 
expiration of his first year, at the age of 27. He had 
been to Andipatti to see a sick person and to secure 

[394] 



Biographical Sketches 

for his annual report details respecting the state of 
the schools and congregation. On his returning, he 
found the Vaigai River, which he was obliged to cross, 
greatly swollen by recent rains. The river was rising, 
and delay might be greatly prolonged. Being a good 
swimmer and having previously swam the river at this 
point, he did not hesitate now. But when he was 
about half-way across, a new river, as it were, caused 
by the giving way of a tank above, was seen by the by- 
standers to come like a wall and overwhelm him. This 
was on Wednesday. On the following Sabbath his 
body was found at Sholavandan, a village thirty miles 
below, and thirteen miles above Madura. Mr. Scud- 
der was buried at the Sanitarium on the Pulney Hills, 
in a spot which overlooks the field of his labors. 

The memorial stone placed over the grave bears' 
upon one side the inscription: — 

David Coit Sctjdder. 
"he leadeth me beside the still waters." 

On the other side are given the dates of birth, land- 
ing at Madras, and death. 

Rev. Mr. Kendall of the Madura station wrote of 
him: "He had endeared himself to us all. He was 
most genial in his intercourse with his associates, most 
diligent in his application to study, and most earnest 
and zealous in his efforts to promote the cause of Christ 
at his station. We were looking to him as a strong 
man, upon whom we could rely to bear the heat and 
burden of the day. But in a moment he is snatched 
away, and we mourn our loss, the loss to the cause so 
near our hearts, and the loss to our dear sister, whose 
bereavement cannot be told." 

The importance of a life like this is not to be esti- 
mated by the short period of sixteen months actually 
spent in the foreign field, but rather this together with 
the nine years of preparation in college, seminary, and 

[395] 



Williams College and Missions 

post-graduate study and work in this country. As 
in the case of Samuel J. Mills, it may not be incorrect 
to say that Mr. Scudder's most important service for 
the cause of missions was rendered in this country be- 
fore he set foot on foreign soil. To the value of his 
influence in the seminary the senior professor gave 
weighty testimony when on receiving intelligence of the 
death of Mr. Scudder, he met his class in the lecture- 
room and spent the hour in rendering tribute to the stu- 
dent who had left upon the seminary the stamp of his 
personal power and influence. "You could trace his 
course through this seminary," said he, "as a river 
through a meadow, by the greenness of its banks. If 
he had died immediately upon leaving us, he would 
have done a life's work." 

Mr. Scudder married February 27, 1861, Miss Har- 
riet L. Dutton, daughter of George D. Dutton, Esq., 
of Boston, who was associated with Mr. Scudder's 
father as deacon in Union Church. Of this marriage 
one child, a daughter, Miss Vida Dutton Scudder, was 
born December, 1861. Miss Scudder was graduated 
at Smith College in 1884, and pursued graduate study 
at Oxford and Paris. She received the degree of 
A. M. from Smith in 1889. Besides being an author 
and editor, she is Professor of English in Wellesley 
College. 

In 1864 a very complete life of Mr. Scudder was 
published by his brother, Horace E. Scudder. The 
volume contains many of the letters and extracts from 
the journal of the missionary. The present sketch 
has been compiled, very largely, from this biography. 
Besides the letters here mentioned as published by his 
brother, and the papers previously mentioned as pub- 
lished in the Boston Recorder and Bibliotheca Sacra, 
Mr. Scudder published a package of children's tracts, 
called "Stories about the Heathen." 

[896] 



Biographical Sketches 

George Thomas Washburn, son of Captain Miles 
Washburn and Emily (Hatch) Washburn, and grand- 
son of Jacob and Phebe (Northrup) Washburn, and of 
Dan Hatch and Lucy (Jones) Hatch, was born in 
Lenox, Massachusetts, September 5, 1832. The family 
of Washburn is one of distinction both in America and 
England, and its well-authenticated lineage is also a 
long one. The American Washburns are for the most 
part descended, through eight generations of Knights 
and Esquires, from Sir Roger de Wasseborne, Kt., 
Lord of Wasseborne and Stanford, County Worces- 
ter, 1239-1299. The first emigrant of the family to this 
country was John Washburn, who had been church 
warden of Benquith parish, and who with his wife, 
Margery Moore, and two sons, John and Philip, emi- 
grated to the Plymouth colony in the earlier part of the 
seventeenth century. He settled first in Duxbury, 
Massachusetts, and later, with Miles Standish and 
others, bought a tract of land of the Indians in Bridge- 
water, where the family gathered about 1665. Dan 
Hatch, the maternal grandfather of the subject of this 
sketch, was descended from Thomas and Grace Hatch, 
who emigrated from Kent County, England, to Massa- 
chusetts Bay, about 1630. Lucy (Jones) Hatch, wife 
of Dan Hatch, was a descendant of William Jones, who 
emigrated from London, 1660, and became Assistant 
and Deputy Governor of the New Haven Colony, and 
Assistant of the United Colony. Among the ancestors 
who were especially distinguished, may be mentioned 
two great-grandfathers, Samuel Northrup and Thomas 
Gates, and two grandfathers, Elijah Northrup and 
Dan Hatch, who were all privates or petty officers in the 
Revolutionary War. Dan Hatch was in the battle of 
Long Island, was captured in the retreat from New 
York and suffered a long imprisonment in the Old 
Sugar House ; John Washburn, son of the emigrant, was 

[ 397 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

a soldier in the first Indian War, while John, the father 
of the emigrant, was appointed by King James in 1605, 
Burgess of Evesham, when he granted that town a 
charter. The Washburns in England have held an 
abundance of offices both in church and state, while in 
America they have been the best sort of citizens, many 
of them being governors, judges, state senators, and 
national representatives, while some have represented 
the country abroad. More than 325 were enrolled in 
the Revolutionary Army. 

Captain Miles Washburn, the father of George T., 
was a farmer, business man, and bank director. It has 
been said of him that he was possessed of all the New 
England virtues and few of the New Englander's de- 
fects. He was a devoutly religious man and a generous 
supporter of religion. Before the day of the Wash- 
ingtonians he was a temperance reformer, and was al- 
ways such a lover of peace and concord that, in a long 
and varied business career, he never sued another at law 
and never was sued. 

George Thomas Washburn fitted for college in 
Lenox Academy and entered Williams College in 1851. 
The class to which he belonged was one of rather un- 
usual distinction. In reporting the fiftieth anniversary 
of this class, the secretary, with proper pride, wrote as 
follows: "Since graduation we have preserved our ac- 
quaintance, strengthened our associations, intensified 
our class spirit and have become justly proud of the 
class because of what its members have accomplished. 
It ranks with celebrated American college classes, with 
those of 1825 at Bowdoin, 1846 at Harvard and 1837 
and 1853 at Yale." In speaking of the individual mem- 
bers of the class, the secretary adds: "Three (Scudder, 
Washburn, and Woodin), went as missionaries to the 
far East, one (Scudder) meeting sudden death just as, 
with rapt ardor, he had entered his field; another 

[ 398 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

(Woodin) was assiduous in translating the Bible into 
various Chinese dialects, benign in the evangelizing of 
a heathen community; and yet another (Washburn) 
has wrought mightily in founding and maintaining the 
Christian college in the heart of India." But besides 
sending three missionaries into the foreign field, the 
class gave two professors and two trustees to the Alma 
Mater. Among other distinguished names on the class 
roll were Charles Elliott Fitch, John James Ingalls, 
Edward Payson Ingersoll, William Parker Prentice. 

In college, Washburn was a faithful, successful stu- 
dent, and a Christian man who always exerted a whole- 
some influence. He was a member of the Mills 
Theological Society. He was one of the speakers at 
Commencement, the subject of his oration being, 
''American Literature — Its Characteristics and their 
Causes." 

After graduation, he studied theology at Andover 
Seminary, where he was graduated in 1858. He also 
studied medicine for a time in New York City. In the 
year 1858-59 he was pastor of a church in East Guil- 
ford, Vermont. He was ordained in Lenox, Massachu- 
setts, March 24, 1859. Under appointment of the 
American Board, he sailed from Boston on January 2, 
1860, for Madras, to join the Madura Mission, arriving 
at Madras April 12, 100 days from Boston. He was at 
first stationed at Battalagundu, where he remained 
eight years. In 1869 he was transferred by the mission 
to Pasumalai, where were spent thirty of the forty 
years of his missionary life, and where was performed 
his great life work which was largely educational. For 
thirty years he stood at the head of the higher educa- 
tion in the Madura Mission. He organized, superin- 
tended and provided the plant for the higher education, 
the plant including a High School, Teachers' Training 
Institute, a College, which was affiliated with the Uni- 

[399] 



Williams College and Missions 

versity of Madras, and a Theological School. For the 
first five years after going to Pasumalai, Dr. Washburn 
had charge of the Theological School. For the next 
twenty-five years he was at the head of the College and 
Training Institution, and until 1892 was also responsi- 
ble for the Theological School. The Institute has over 
thirty professors and instructors and has already 
trained over 2000 young men. In all departments of 
these various schools there was always maintained, un- 
der Dr. Washburn, a high standard of scholarship. 
Besides these services rendered to education, Dr. Wash- 
burn established a bi-lingual press and newspaper, and 
for seventeen years carried on, with his wife, a famine 
orphanage. Failing health led him to retire from his 
work at the end of March, 1900. It is not too much to 
say that Dr. Washburn impressed himself upon the 
minds of the whole Hindu race. 

During the forty years of service in India, Dr. and 
Mrs. Washburn occasionally visited the United States, 
for needed recreation and recovery of health. Two 
such occasions were the periods 1872-74 and 1896-97. 
The letter which he wrote on his return from the last- 
mentioned visit reveals somewhat of the extent of his 
influence and the strength of the affection his pupils 
had for him. "On landing at Madras," he writes, "we 
were met by old students of the school employed in 
Madras ; and all along the 350 miles of country between 
Madras and Madura, teeming with population, there is 
not a mission which has not in its service men educated 
by us in considerable numbers, and occupying places of 
high responsibility. The larger part are men of our 
Madura Mission. Besides the Hindus educated in our 
institution, not far from 100 Christian men of some col- 
lege grade have gone out since 1881, the year of our 
affiliation with the Madras University, to find work for 
themselves. And it is a most interesting fact that 

[400] 





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Biographical Sketches 

nearly every one of them has gone, not into govern- 
ment work nor into secular work, but into mission 
work." 

Here may be given, appropriately, an extract from 
a communication prepared by Principal W. M. Zum- 
bro, of Pasumalai College, on the occasion of the de- 
parture of Dr. and Mrs. Washburn. "By the final 
return to America of Dr. and Mrs. Washburn, the 
Pasumalai College and Training Institution lost from 
its active staff those who had been its guiding and in- 
spiring geniuses for over thirty years. It could not but 
have been a source of gratitude to these faithful serv- 
ants of Christ to see before they left the mission an 
institution so well provided with teachers, with build- 
ings and with general equipment as this is. It could 
hardly have been less gratifying to have received the 
numerous expressions of heartfelt gratitude and appre- 
ciation which came to them from every quarter before 
their departure. Orphans who had been saved from 
starvation during the dreadful famine of 1877-78, 
Hindus who had had the privilege of sharing in the in- 
struction and association at Pasumalai, Christians who 
had been helped by them, helped in material ways in 
times of need, helped to a higher life by words of coun- 
sel and direction and by the example of a consecrated 
life, teachers who had had the privilege of being asso- 
ciated with them in the school life and work, all joined 
in expressions of thanksgiving for their long life and 
service in India, and of sorrow as they remembered 
that they should see their faces no more." 

Dr. Washburn received the degree of Doctor of Di- 
vinity from his Alma Mater in 1889. In 1897 he was 
made a Fellow of the University of Madras, and, for 
a time, served on its Faculty of Arts. He is one of the 
revisers of the British and Foreign Bible Society, Ma- 
dras, a member of the Madras Religious Tract and 

[401] 



Williams College and Missions 

Book Society, and member of the American Oriental 
Society. 

Mr. Washburn was married September 1, 1859, to 
Miss Eliza Ellen Case, daughter of Ira and Mary 
(Smith) Case, of Gloversville, New York. Mrs. 
Washburn was descended from ancestors who came 
from England to Dorchester, Massachusetts, about 
1630. She died July 23, 1914. The children are two 
sons: Edwin Case Washburn of Hartford, Connect- 
icut, and David Scudder Washburn of Meriden, 
Connecticut. 

Dr. Washburn has his home with the younger son. 

Besides his many interesting letters and reports 
which were published in the Missionary Herald, Dr. 
Washburn compiled and edited three books of "Tamil 
Lyrics." He was also joint editor with Mrs. Wash- 
burn, for twenty-five years, of a bi-lingual newspaper 
in Madura. 

Simeon Foster Woodin, son of George C. and 
Phebe (Foster) Woodin, and grandson of Daniel and 
Thankful (Graves) Woodin, and of Parla and Phebe 
(Wells) Foster, was born at Green River, in the town 
of Hillsdale, Columbia County, New York, May 11, 
1833. The family is descended from Timothy Woodin, 
who emigrated from the Isle of Wight, it is believed, 
and settled in New England. The father of Simeon F. 
Woodin was a farmer. The son obtained his prepara- 
tory education at the academies of Austerlitz, Spencer- 
town, and North Granville, New York, and at the 
academy of Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He 
entered college in 1851. In college he was very conscien- 
tious and faithful religiously, and exceedingly assidu- 
ous as a student. At the Junior Exhibition he was 
assigned the Latin Oration and at Commencement he 
received the appointment of Salutatorian, and deliv- 

[ 402 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

ered the Classical Oration, his subject being "Knowl- 
edge of Human Nature displayed in the Classics." He 
received the degree of Master of Arts in course. 

After graduation he taught, for a year, in the Spen- 
certown Academy, and entered Union Theological Sem- 
inary, from which he was graduated in 1859. While 
he was in the seminary, he preached three months 
(in 1857) in Bozrah, Connecticut, and three months (in 
1858) in Coleraine, Massachusetts. He was licensed to 
preach by the Fourth Presbytery of New York, April 
11, 1859, and was ordained by the same Presbytery 
June 19, of the same year, in the Central Presbyterian 
Church, New York City. On September 27, he sailed 
from New York, under appointment of the American 
Board, for Foochow, China, arriving there February 
6, 1860. For nearly thirty-five years he labored in and 
about Foochow with untiring fidelity. His various 
communications published in the Missionary Herald 
give some idea of the variety and success of his labors. 
He devoted much time to various educational depart- 
ments, he labored in the preparation of books and 
tracts, and served on committees for translating and 
revising the Scriptures in the colloquial. In addition to 
all these services, and in connection with them, he did 
extensive evangelistic work in preaching and itinerat- 
ing, in which he labored with fidelity and at all seasons. 
Among these services may be mentioned the tour of 100 
miles which he made every year up the Inghok River 
over a field which is now superintended by a missionary 
who is supported by the church of a classmate of Mr. 
Woodin. His letters, now and then, contain records of 
opposition to the work of the missionaries, and occa- 
sionally speak of vandalism, but the keynote of his com- 
munications is sounded in the expressed determination 
of ever pushing forward. The records of the year 1876, 
after sixteen years of such faithful labor, contain the 

[ 403 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

joyous account of the ordination of the first two native 
pastors and of the issuing by the Government of a proc- 
lamation guaranteeing protection to the missionaries. 

In a letter written about a year before his death to 
the class secretary on the fortieth anniversary of grad- 
uation, Mr. Woodin gives the following brief sketch 
of the later years of his missionary life: 

"I have spent the last fifteen years in Foochow, 
China, with the exception of a furlough of a year and a 
half in '83-84. My work has been on nearly the same 
lines as during the previous twenty years, as partly re- 
lated in the class book. I had translated into the Foo- 
chow Chinese language most of the historical books 
of the Old Testament, including the books of Ruth, 
Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, also the last books of 
the Old Testament and half of the Psalms. Since then 
I have assisted in revising the same version of a large 
part of the Old Testament, and of a portion of the 
New. I have also translated a first book of Christian 
instruction for inquirers, have had charge of six school 
teachers, eight Chinese preachers, and ten regular 
preaching places. For the last five years I have also 
taught classes of students preparing for the ministry, 
and have been treasurer of missions for the past nine 
years. Ill health brought me to America in May, '95, 
for a year's recuperation after a ten-years' absence. 
The Chinese and Japan War had just closed when I 
left China. . . . We plan to return to the work in 
China next year. Missionary work in China was not 
harmed — probably was much benefited by the war. 
Protestant missionaries or Chinese preachers are now 
proclaiming Christ in a thousand cities and villages in 
seventeen of the nineteen Provinces and there are nearly 
50,000 adult converts." 

Mr. Woodin died of malarial fever at the home of 
his son at Amenia, New York, June 28, 1896. He was 

[404] 



Biographical Sketches 

buried at Amenia, the son conducting the funeral 
services. 

The secretary of the class wrote of him: "Woodin is 
remembered as one of our most thoughtful, studious 
and conscientious men, rather diffident and reserved in 
manner, but kindly and courteous. His rank as a 
scholar was very high. His work in translating the Bi- 
ble into the Foochow dialect and in constant missionary 
service in China was a great and beneficent one. He 
was among the most useful and esteemed servants of the 
American Board of Foreign Missions." With this 
judgment of a classmate corresponds the estimate of his 
fellow workers in the field of missions. The thorough- 
ness which characterized him as a student in college 
characterized his work as a missionary. The diffidence 
and reserve of manner of the student days remained 
with him in maturer years. His life was characterized 
by great simplicity and directness of purpose. If, at 
times, there was an apparent hesitation as to right 
methods, it should be attributed to an honest effort to 
probe a subject to the bottom. His keenness of percep- 
tion of motives and character in the native mind gave 
him great advantage among such a people as the Chi- 
nese. The assiduousness with which he had pursued 
his college studies found its counterpart in the persist- 
ency with which he wrought in the missionary life. 
Along with this unyielding persistency and underlying 
it was an unwavering faith, even in the darkest hours, 
it being often said by him that "no work wrought for 
Christ could be in vain or unaccepted." Hence he was 
characterized as a plodder in one of the best senses. 
Under a very easy and quiet manner there lay hid a 
latent force, while a quaint originality in his expressions 
gave much point and a peculiar strength to his conver- 
sation and public addresses. One of his associates, Rev. 
Dr. C. C. Baldwin, from whose appreciation of Mr. 

[405 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

Woodin many of the above traits are taken, writes of 
him in the Missionary Herald: "This dear brother will 
be sadly missed from the work, for his place cannot be 
easily filled at once. He seemed full of love to Christ 
and his cause. His varied graces have left their impress 
both on Christian and heathen, for his influence has 
been widely felt. His spirit of benevolence and help- 
fulness has always been in lively exercise, and has en- 
deared him to many in their time of need. His public 
addresses made their mark on many minds, rising not 
rarely to heights of eloquence which invited the atten- 
tion alike of missionaries and natives, and bringing di- 
rectly to view the truth impressed and the glowing love 
of the speaker." 

Mr. Woodin married at Concord, New Hampshire, 
August 10, 1859, Sarah Lee Utley, daughter of Rev. 
Samuel and Mary Jane (Eastman) Utley and grand- 
daughter of Samuel and Sally (Knowlton) Utley and 
of Robert and Sarah (Lee) Eastman, and a descend- 
ant of Captain Ebenezer Eastman. She survives him, 
with two sons and three daughters. Of the seven chil- 
dren born to them the living are: Edwin B. Woodin, 
who was graduated from Amherst College in 1885, and 
is a shoe merchant; Herbert P. Woodin, Amherst 1888, 
and Yale Divinity School 1893, who is now pastor of 
the High Street Congregational Church, Auburn, 
Maine; Mary E. Woodin, a teacher in the Western 
College for Women at Oxford, Ohio; Gertrude Lee 
Woodin, in the Bureau of Education, Washington, D. 
C. ; Mrs. Grace Van Allen, Carthage, New York. The 
daughters are all graduates of Wellesley College. 

Ray Palmer Woodin, who was graduated here in 
1898, is a nephew. 

Besides various letters published in the Missionary 
Herald, Mr. Woodin published portions of the Bible 
and other translations in the Foochow colloquial, 

[ 406 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

among which may be mentioned "The Christian Daily 
Spiritual Food," and "Western Arithmetic for Begin- 
ners." Some months before his death he wrote at Ame- 
nia for the Missionary Herald an article entitled "The 
Vegetarian Sect and recent War Scare in China." 



CLASS OF 1857 

Lysander Tower Burbank was born in Fitz- 
william, New Hampshire, November 24, 1828. His 
father was John Burbank, son of John and Elizabeth 
(Woodbury) Burbank; and his mother Hannah, 
daughter of David and Lydia (Burbank) Lyon. On 
his mother's side he was descended from William Lyon, 
who sailed from London, England, September 11, 
1635, and settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts. The 
Lyon family has been distinguished for patriotism, 
bravery, and piety. A large number of this family and 
name were in the War of the Revolution, among them 
being David Lyon, grandfather of the subject of this 
sketch. John Burbank, the father, was a farmer by 
occupation, and is spoken of as a good business man, 
an earnest Christian, and a man of great benevolence. 

Lysander Tower Burbank had to contend with ad- 
verse circumstances in obtaining his preparation for 
college, teaching school and working on the farm in 
order to defray his expenses. He studied in different 
academies for a time, beginning the study of Latin in 
Brattleboro, Vermont, and completing his preparatory 
studies at Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, New 
Hampshire. He entered Williams as a Freshman in 
1853, when he was twenty-five years of age. Among 
his classmates were Henry Mills Alden, Simeon How- 
ard Calhoun, Edward Swift Isham, and Samuel Hub- 
bard Scudder. Burbank is remembered by classmates 
as thoroughly upright, earnestly independent, and of 

C 407 ] . 



Williams College and Missions 

an inquiring mind. He seems to have been particu- 
larly interested in the subject of political economy and 
to have enjoyed discussing with the professor Free 
Trade and kindred topics. He was a member of the 
Philotechnian Society and of the Mills Theological 
Society. 

After graduation from college he entered Union 
Theological Seminary, where he took a high rank as a 
scholar and where he was graduated in 1880. In May 
of the same year he was ordained in his home church 
at Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire. On the 3d of July 
following, he, with his wife, sailed on the barque Smyr- 
niote for Smyrna, as a missionary of the American 
Board, reaching Smyrna after a voyage of fifty-two 
days. This is said to have been the last party of mis- 
sionaries that was sent out on a sailing vessel. From 
Smyrna, Mr. and Mrs. Burbank proceeded by steamer 
to Constantinople, and thence to Trebizond and thence 
by pack saddles, through Erzroom to Bitlis, a city of 
Kurdistan, about 325 miles southeast of Trebizond. 
He reached Bitlis October 13. This was the center of 
Mr. Burbank's missionary operations for ten years, 
during which time he was busy in organizing schools, 
establishing churches, and in other ways taking his part 
in furthering the wonderful reformation which was go- 
ing forward in Turkey during that interesting period. 

By his tours he made thorough explorations of the 
regions lying within convenient reach of his station and 
made interesting observations on the condition and 
needs of the people whom he saw. In the autumn of 
1861 he made a tour over the country north and west 
of Lake Van, through the extensive and fertile plain 
called Boolanuk, and from thence to Khanoos, Erz- 
room, and the city of Van. The following extract is 
from his letter describing the Boolanuk district: "This 
district is separated from Lake Van by a low, narrow 

[408] 



Biographical Sketches 

range of hills, which rises at its southern extremity into 
a high mountain peak, called Lipan. On the north are 
visible the high mountains of Erzroom; on the north- 
east, the snowy peaks of Ararat. Through it runs the 
east branch of the Euphrates, passing through a gap 
in the mountains into Moosh plain. This is an exceed- 
ingly interesting region for the naturalist and historian, 
but its geology and history must not divert our atten- 
tion from its present inhabitants and their religious 
wants. It is about fifteen hours from Bitlis — or fifty 
miles; a day's ride in length, and half that in breadth; 
and is by far the most fertile plain in this part of Tur- 
key, Moosh not excepted. It sustains a large popula- 
tion. The villages are large and near each other. 
There are twenty Armenian villages in the plain, each 
having from fifty to three hundred houses, giving an 
average of ninety to each, and a total Armenian popu- 
lation of 12,000. To this must be added the Armeni- 
ans on the north and west shores of the lake, about 
4000 in number, beside the large number of Turks and 
Kurds. Thus we see how thickly populated the coun- 
try is." In many places, Mr. Burbank found the peo- 
ple ready, and even desirous, for a missionary. He 
recognized the importance of the location of Van and 
repeatedly called the attention of the Board to the de- 
sirableness of establishing a station there. It was 
probably owing not a little to these representations that 
the Board decided to open a station there in 1871, Dr. 
George C. Raynolds (Williams 1861) being one of 
those sent to begin the work. 

In 1870 Mr. Burbank returned to this country and 
became pastor for ten years (1870-80) of the First 
Congregational Church of Herndon, Virginia; pastor 
for a time of Presbyterian churches in Burr Oak and 
Georgetown, Nebraska; and stated supply at Gandy, 
Dorp Valley, and Garfield, Nebraska. From 1893 

[409] 



Williams College and Missions 

till 1896 he was without charge in Denver, Colorado; 
and 1896-97 he was pastor emeritus in Byers, Colorado. 
In 1897-99 he was pastor of an Armenian Presbyterian 
church in Fresno, California, which he himself had or- 
ganized; and for a time did evangelistic work in Salem, 
Oregon. In Georgetown he did duty both as mission- 
ary and physician. He also did religious work in San 
Francisco. 

Mr. Burbank spent the last years of his life at the 
home of a daughter in Hanford, California, where he 
died May 12, 1912, 83 years of age. Mrs. Burbank and 
five children survive him. 

He married May 16, 1860, in New York, Miss 
Sarah Susanna Van Vleck, daughter of Abram and 
Catharine Van Vleck, and granddaughter of Truman 
and Susanna Bartholomew of New York. 

There were born to them eight children, of whom 
the five living are Frank Van Vleck Burbank, a mer- 
chant in Red Cliff, Colorado; Mrs. Mary Susannah 
Montgomery, Alliance, Nebraska; Mrs. Hannah Kath- 
erine Pressey, Tuckerville, Nebraska; Abraham Julian 
Burbank, a chiropodist, Roseville, California; Mrs. 
Agnes J. Eca da Silva, Hanford, California. Mr. da 
Silva is a Bachelor of Music from the Conservatory of 
Milan, Italy. 

Besides the degrees received in course from his col- 
lege and theological seminary, Dr. Burbank held the 
degree of Doctor of Medicine. 



CLASS OF 1858 
James Mc Kinney Alexander, born at Waioli, 
Kauai, Hawaiian Islands, January 29, 1835, was the 
son of Rev. William Patterson Alexander, who stud- 
ied for a time at Centre College, Kentucky, was grad- 
uated at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1830, and 

. i [410] 



Biographical Sketches 

became a missionary, under the appointment of the 
American Board, to the Hawaiian Islands. With 
Messrs. Armstrong and Parker, Rev. W. P. Alexan- 
der was appointed to commence a new mission at the 
Marquesas Islands. On his return from that mission 
he labored for nine years at Waioli, where he built a 
substantial church and where the congregation num- 
bered from 800 to 1000. The efforts which he, with Dr. 
Armstrong, made to establish a boarding-school for 
the missionaries' children, resulted in the founding 
of the Punahou School, which subsequently became 
Oahu College. He later took charge of the seminary 
at Lahainaluna, which had been established for the spe- 
cial purpose of educating teachers. In connection with 
his work as an educator, he prepared and published 
various books for the Hawaiians. After laboring for 
thirteen years at Lahainaluna he became pastor of the 
church at Wailuku, where he spent the remaining 
twenty-seven years of his life. In 1858 he was sent by 
the mission to the United States to secure an endow- 
ment and a president for Oahu College, returning the 
following year. He was also appointed by the mis- 
sion to commence a theological school, in which, in addi- 
tion to his pastoral labor, he taught five days a week 
for eleven years. In 1869 he resigned the pastorate in 
order to give more time to the theological school, con- 
tinuing to preach, however, and to assist in the pastoral 
work of the churches. General S. C. Armstrong 
(Williams 1862), speaking of his work, said: "He 
sowed seed, the fruition of which spread silently over 
the Islands, the value of which cannot be estimated. ,, 
The earliest years of the son were spent at his birth- 
place. His preparatory studies were pursued under 
Rev. Daniel Dole, at the Punahou School, where he re- 
mained during the years 1843-53. On December 2, 
1853, in company with Henry Munson Lyman, who 

[4H] 



Williams College and Missions 

was to be his classmate at Williams, he sailed on the 
whaling vessel Bartholomew Gosnold for New Bed- 
ford, Massachusetts. He entered college as a Fresh- 
man in 1854, having among his classmates Henry Hop- 
kins, Horace Elisha Scudder, and Richard Halsted 
Ward. He was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi 
Society; of the Mills Theological Society, of which he 
was a president; and of the Philologian Society, which 
he represented in the Adelphic Union Debate. He 
was one of the foremost scholars of his class, attaining 
to Phi Beta Kappa rank, and was one of the speakers 
at Commencement, his appointment being the Mathe- 
matical Oration, and the subject of his address, "The 
True Principle of Progress.' ' 

After graduation he had charge of the academy in 
Spencertown, New York, for six months, and spent the 
spring and summer in the West, where he suffered in 
health from the intense heat and poisonous climate. 
The year 1859-60 was spent in Union Theological 
Seminary, during which time he attended some medi- 
cal lectures and also engaged in city missionary work. 
Subsequently he did missionary work in Vermont, and 
in 1861 he returned by the way of Cape Horn to the 
Hawaiian Islands, where, residing with his father at 
Wailuku, Maui, he alternated between sugar planting 
and preaching. In 1864 he removed to California, 
where he engaged in home missionary work, laboring 
seven years in organizing churches and supplying, tem- 
porarily, different pulpits. He thus organized 
churches at San Leandro and San Lorenzo, in which 
places he was stated supply from 1864 to 1869, being 
ordained by Presbytery at San Jose June 11, 1865. 
During the years 1870-72 he was stated supply at Cen- 
treville and Alvarado, California, and at Carson City, 
Nevada. Being obliged on account of the state of his 
health to give up regular pastoral work, he returned 

[412] 



Biographical Sketches 

to Hawaii in 1872 and settled at Haiku. Here he 
engaged partly in the sugar business and partly in mis- 
sionary work, assisting in the organization of the for- 
eign church at Makaomao, of the Hawaiian churches at 
Haiku, and at Paia, Maui, and of a Chinese church in 
the last named place. For the most of these years he 
was an independent missionary. 

In 1883 he removed to Oakland, California, and 
invested in a fruit farm in Tulare County. Here he 
could indulge his special taste in gardening and flori- 
culture, of which he had been fond all his life. He con- 
tinued to take an active part in all church work, being 
an efficient worker in the cause of temperance, and 
in all movements for civic and social reform. 

In 1896, in company with his brother, S. T. Alex- 
ander, he made a tour of the Southern Pacific, arriv- 
ing at Honolulu in 1897, and spending a month in the 
Islands. Another visit to his old home and kindred 
was made ten years later. 

He died in Oakland, California, April 11, 1911. 

The writer of a memorial sketch published in the 
Friend for May, 1911, said of him: "Of his character 
it is difficult to speak. Unselfish, tender, considerate, 
always cheery, with a pleasant flow of wit and humor, 
he carried sunshine with him everywhere. His home 
life was ideal. The secret of it was a profound reli- 
gious experience which pervaded the inner life." 

He was married in East Oakland, California, on 
January 15, 1867, to Miss Mary E. Webster, who with 
two sons and two daughters survived him. The chil- 
dren are: Frank A. Alexander, manager of the Mc- 
Bryde Plantation on Kauai; Dr. William Edgar Alex- 
ander, San Francisco; Miss Mary Edith Alexander; 
and Mrs. Sarah E. Tomlinson, Oakland. 

Mr. Alexander published, besides occasional articles 
for the press, "On the Summit of the Crater" (of 

[413] 



Williams College and Missions 

Mokuaweoweo of Mt. Loa, Hawaii) ; "The Islands of 
the Pacific"; and "Mission Life in Hawaii"; the last 
being a memoir of his father, Rev. William P. 
Alexander. 

Samuel Russell Butler was born in Northamp- 
ton, Massachusetts, July 21, 1837. He was the son of 
Jonathan Hunt and Mary Ann (Bowers) Butler. 
He fitted for college at the L. J. Dudley Classical 
School in Northampton, and entered Williams as a 
Freshman in 1854. In college he was a member of the 
Philologian Society, and took a good rank as a scholar, 
graduating with the appointment of an Oration. He 
was one of the speakers at Commencement, the subject 
of his address being "Sentiment as an Element of 
Character." 

The year after graduation he spent at Andover 
Theological Seminary, after which he taught for a time 
in the Preparatory Department of St. Paul's College, 
at Palmyra, Missouri. The years 1862-64 he spent in 
Union Theological Seminary. On account of failure 
of his health he went to Labrador on an excursion, 
where he became interested in missionary work. This 
work he continued until the fall of 1880, excepting the 
years 1870-73. He was ordained in Montreal, Can- 
ada, by the Canadian Foreign Missionary Society, 
September 10, 1866. He was stated supply during the 
year 1870-71 at Leeds, Massachusetts; during 1872-73, 
at Hutchinson, Minnesota; and then for a time at 
Washington, Maine. He gave up his missionary work 
in Labrador on account of the severity of the climate, 
and spent the winter of 1880-81 partly in the Sanita- 
rium at Clifton Springs, New York, and partly in 
Florida. After residing for a time without charge in 
Northampton, Massachusetts, he spent the year 1883- 
84 in foreign travel, and on his return to this country 

[414] 



Biographical Sketches 

he took charge of the Congregational Church in Mill 
River (New Marlboro'), Massachusetts, which with 
one intermission he served with great faithfulness until 
1893, when he became too feeble to work. He died of 
exhaustion at Clifton Springs, New York, March 25, 
1893. 

"Few have known how beautiful was his pure and 
Christlike life, but many among the poor and lonely 
are saddened by his loss." 



CLASS OF 1859 

John Thomas Gulick was born in Waimea, 
Kauai, Hawaiian Islands, March 13, 1832. He is the 
son of Rev. Peter Johnson and Fanny Hinckley 
(Thomas) Gulick, and grandson of John Gulick, who 
was a farmer in Freehold, New Jersey. He is de- 
scended, on the father's side, from Hendrick Gulick, 
who came to New York from the Netherlands in 1653. 
Rev. Peter Johnson Gulick, the father, was a graduate 
of Princeton College and Seminary, and was a mis- 
sionary in the Hawaiian Islands 1828-74. He died 
in Japan in 1877. The mother, who was the daughter 
of a farmer of Scotch and English ancestry, was a na- 
tive of Lebanon, Connecticut. The father is described 
as being strong and decisive in action, while the mother 
was reflective, thoughtful, and of well-poised character. 
Of their eight children, six were at the same time in the 
service of the American Board, — four in Japan and 
two in Spain. One brother, Thomas Lafon Gulick, 
missionary to Spain, was graduated here in 1865. The 
name of Gulick has been associated with American mis- 
sions for more than four score years. 

John Thomas Gulick pursued his preparatory 
studies at Punahou and in the Preparatory Depart- 
ment of New York University, where also he took his 

[415 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

Freshman year, entering Williams as a Sophomore in 
1856. In college he was a member of the Mills Theo- 
logical Society and of the Lyceum of Natural History, 
of both of which he was treasurer in his Junior year, 
and in his Senior year he was one of the vice-presidents 
of the former and one of the presidents of the latter. 
In his Senior year the Williams Quarterly contained a 
poem by him entitled, "The Mountain Brood." 

Dr. Washington Gladden, in a letter published in 
connection with the sketch of Dr. Haskell has written 
in high praise of Mr. Gulick's ability and character. 

After graduation, Mr. Gulick studied theology at 
Union Seminary, 1859-61, and then spent some time in 
study, teaching, and travel on the Pacific Coast. In 
1862-63, he spent about eighteen months in Japan, and 
urged the American Board to open a mission in that 
country. Failing in this effort, he received an appoint- 
ment of the Board as a missionary to China, and was 
ordained in Canton, August 22, 1864. He sailed from 
Hong Kong, with his wife, for Tientsin September 13. 
The vessel was wrecked on Pratas Shoal, September 
22, but the crew and passengers were saved by a Chi- 
nese vessel and returned to Hong Kong. From here 
Mr. and Mrs. Gulick sailed again, October 8, in a 
steamship, and reached Tientsin, October 26, arriving 
at Peking on November 5. He first engaged in mis- 
sion work in Peking, 1864-65, but in the latter year he 
opened mission work in Kalgan, North China, where 
he remained ten years. During this period he made 
summer tours among the people of the Mongolian 
Plains, 4000 feet above sea level. In 1872, he made a 
visit to England, at which time he met with Darwin, 
who gave him great encouragement as to certain spe- 
cial investigations he was making in the subject of 
Evolution. 

The mission station opened by Mr. and Mrs. Gu- 

[416] 



Biographical Sketches 

lick in Kalgan was the first regular Protestant work in 
China in any place except near to foreign consuls or 
ministers. Their services here consisted largely in out- 
station, evangelistic, and medical work, and involved 
extended tours in the saddle. In 1875, for reasons of 
health, Mr. and Mrs. Gulick removed to Kobe, Japan, 
where he remained until 1882, when he went to Osaka, 
where he remained until 1899. 

During his residence in Osaka, Mr. Gulick was in- 
terested in the introduction of the study of English in 
the schools of Japan, taking as he did a particular inter- 
est in the young. In 1898, he wrote from Osaka: "My 
own work is largely in connection with the young men 
who are pressing into the varied departments of busi- 
ness in this great commercial center. I teach two hours 
each morning in the boys' school, which has been an im- 
portant medium of Christian influence during the past 
ten years." 

For many years Mr. Gulick had been interested in 
the subject of natural history, particularly in the prob- 
lem connected with the origin and distribution of spe- 
cies. As early as 1872 he had published the results of 
his investigations in Nature and in the Linnsean So- 
ciety's Journal of Zoology. The article in the latter 
Journal was brought before the Linnaean Society by 
Mr. Wallace. Meeting Darwin in England about this 
time, Mr. Gulick was led to make a more extensive 
study of the factors of evolution and from time to time 
published various papers on the subject. Certain let- 
ters published in Nature led to a correspondence with 
G. T. Romanes, who, in his volume, "Darwin and after 
Darwin," makes frequent references to Gulick's pa- 
pers, characterizing them as "of higher value than any 
other work in the field of Darwinian thought since the 
date of Darwin's death." In 1888 he again visited 
England and at that time made the personal acquaint- 

[417] 



Williams College and Missions 

ance of Romanes, who had previously acknowledged 
the great influence upon his own thinking of the views 
of Gulick. In the following year he met Professor Hy- 
att, of the Boston Society of Natural History, who 
took the greatest interest in Gulick's collection of land 
shells, which had been gathered in the Hawaiian Islands 
in 1851-52. It was through the influence of Professor 
Hyatt that a collection of these shells was obtained for 
the Museum of the Boston Society of Natural History. 

Owing to his great interest and success in scientific 
investigations, Mr. Gulick retired from the services 
of the Board in 1899, and from that date till 1905 re- 
sided in Oberlin, Ohio, engaged in literary work. After 
a short time spent at Oakland, California, he returned 
to Honolulu, where he still resides. 

Mr. Gulick received the degree of Master of Arts 
from Williams College in 1889, of Doctor of Philosophy 
from Adelbert College in the same year, and of Doctor 
of Science from Oberlin College in 1905. He is a mem- 
ber of the American Oriental Society, of the American 
Society of Zoology, of the New York Lyceum of Nat- 
ural History, of the Boston Natural History Society, 
and a life member of the American Economic 
Association. 

Mr. Gulick married at Hong Kong, China, Septem- 
ber 3, 1864, Emily De La Cour, of Rochester, Eng- 
land, who died in Kobe, Japan, December 17, 1875. 
He was again married at Osaka, Japan, May 31, 1880, 
to Frances Amelia Stevens, who was educated at Ober- 
lin College, a daughter of Rev. William Riley Stevens 
(Williams 1841), and Louisa F. (Cook) Stevens, and 
granddaughter of William Stevens, and of Noah Cook, 
who was a prominent citizen of Williamstown, Massa- 
chusetts. Rev. William Riley Stevens was very tall, 
being 6 feet and 7 inches in stature. 

There were born to Mr. Gulick two children, a son 



Biographical Sketches 

and a daughter. The son, Addison Gulick, who is a 
professor in the University of Minnesota, was grad- 
uated from Oberlin College in 1904, and received the 
degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of 
Wiirtzburg, Germany, in 1910; the daughter, Miss 
Louise Gulick, after graduating at Oberlin College, 
pursued a course of medical study at Johns Hopkins 
University. 

Dr. Gulick published "The Diversity of Evolution 
under One Set of External Conditions" (1872) ; "Di- 
vergent Evolution through Cumulative Segregation" 
(1887); "Intensive Segregation" (1889, in the Lin- 
naean Society's Journal of Zoology, Vols. XI, XX, and 
XXIII) ; "Divergent Evolution and the Darwinian 
Theory"; "The Inconsistencies of Utilitarianism"; 
"The Preservation and Accumulation of Cross Infer- 
tility" (in American Journal of Science, January, 
July, and December, 1890) ; and "Description of New 
Species of Land Mollusks of the Hawaiian Islands," in 
the Proceedings of the New York Lyceum of Natural 
History. He also published five letters in Nature, 
Vols. XLI, XLII, XLIV and LV. After 1900, while 
residing at Oberlin, he brought together for publication 
in a single volume his writings on the factors of organic 
evolution. In 1905, he brought out a book entitled, 
"Evolution, Racial and Habitudinal," and published by 
the Carnegie Institution of Washington. 

Henry Charles Haskell, son of William and 
Abigail (Clark) Haskell, was born at Anson, Somerset 
County, Maine, December 28, 1835. He was de- 
scended from William Haskell and William Clark, who 
settled, the one in Gloucester, in 1632, and the other 
in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1630. The ances- 
tor, Lieutenant William Clark, was called "one of the 
seven pillars of the Church." The father of the subject 

[ *19] 



Williams College and Missions 

of our sketch was a lawyer by profession. The son was 
reared in a home where the influences were excellent. 
He was fitted for college partly at Oberlin, Ohio, but 
mainly at the academy in Hinsdale, Massachusetts. He 
entered college in 1855 and became a prominent 
member of his class, taking part in several of the stu- 
dent "activities" of the time. At the end of the Sopho- 
more year he and four others were members of the "Old 
Bones Club" expedition to the White Mountains. At 
the Junior Exhibition he had one of the English ora- 
tions. He was a member of the Anti- Secret Confed- 
eration. In Senior year he was one of the presidents of 
the Philologian Society and also of the Mills Theologi- 
cal Society. He was also one of the contributors to the 
Williams Quarterly. On graduation he had for an ap- 
pointment the Philosophical Oration, which, of course, 
placed him high among the Phi Beta Kappa men. The 
subject of his oration was "Destructive Forces." 

After graduation, he studied theology at Andover 
Seminary, from which he was graduated in 1862. He 
was ordained at South Deerfield, Massachusetts, Au- 
gust 13, 1862, and under appointment as a missionary 
of the American Board he sailed from New York Oc- 
tober 4, 1862, for Western Turkey, arriving on Decem- 
ber 13, at Sofia, — the station to be occupied in the 
Bulgarian field. After a few months, by advice of the 
committee of the mission, Mr. Haskell removed to Phil- 
ippopolis, to assist and relieve Mr. Clark. In his letters 
he writes of the advance of the work among the Bulga- 
rians, and in particular of the boys' school at Philippop- 
olis and of the girls' school at Eski Zaghra. In 1871 
Mr. Haskell removed to the latter place to assist Mr. 
Bond, and in the following year he and Mrs. Haskell 
returned to this country, and in 1874, finding them- 
selves unable to return to Turkey, they reluctantly 
asked and received a release from connection with the 

[ 420] 



Biographical Sketches 

Board. For family reasons they were detained in this 
country for fourteen years, and during this time he held 
pastorates in Ohio: at Huntington 1873-75; High 
Street Church, Columbus, 1875-77; North Amherst 
1877-81; Harmar 1881-87. On October 8, 1887, Mr. 
and Mrs. Haskell sailed from New York to rejoin the 
European Turkey Mission, arriving at Samokov, Bul- 
garia, November 5. The Missionary Herald of 1888 
contains an article by Mr. Haskell on "Bulgaria — 
Some Contrasts of Twenty-five Years." In the article 
he treats of the political changes, the growth of mission 
schools, the development of Christian literature, and of 
stations and churches. Under the last head he has this 
to say: "When we first came to the work we found mis- 
sionaries stationed at Philippopolis, Eski Zaghra, and 
Sofia, using the Bulgarian language. For over five 
years we were but four missionary families at these 
three stations. No place was occupied as out-station. 
No church was formed for some eight years after we 
came; and at the time of our coming no real follower 
was known in all our field." Then, speaking of some 
changes in stations and noting that the three central 
stations were Samokov, Philippopolis, and Monastir, 
he continues: "Aside from these central stations, regu- 
lar preaching services, weekly, fortnightly, or monthly, 
are held in some twenty-six out-stations; in some of 
which the audiences and the church members far out- 
number those at the station. For example, the church 
here in Samokov has fifty-two resident members, and 
an average congregation of 169; while the church in 
Bansko has 154 members and an average audience of 
240. The church at Philippopolis had last year less 
than forty members and an average congregation of 
160; while that in Yamboul had fifty-one members, with 
audiences of 140. In the three stations and their out- 
stations there are eight organized churches, with three 

[421] 



Williams College and Missions 

or four more soon to be formed; sixteen Bulgarian 
preachers in service, five of them ordained; thirteen 
church buildings, a church membership of about 600, 
and a regular congregation numbering over 1600." 

Subsequent letters speak of the revival at Samokov 
and Philippopolis, of a church dedication and Confer- 
ence at the latter place, of the self-support of the 
church there. 

An interesting event in the life of Mr. Haskell was 
the celebration of his seventieth birthday on December 
28, 1905, when he received congratulations from all the 
missionaries and evangelical pastors and preachers 
within the field of the Board in Bulgaria, as well as 
from friends in America and elsewhere. A reception 
was held and addresses made by Bulgarian pastors in 
the parlors of the church at Philippopolis, where was 
also presented a formal address of congratulation, 
signed by Pastor Sitchanoff and fifty others. The fol- 
lowing extract from that letter shows somewhat of the 
importance and extent of the work done by Mr. Has- 
kell in Bulgaria: "As Bulgarians and evangelical 
Christians we deeply value your untiring efforts for the 
spiritual enlightenment of our whole mission. Espe- 
cially we in Philippopolis wish on this occasion to ex- 
press our whole-souled thankfulness for the spiritual 
and earnest sermons which you have preached from 
time to time during your stay among us. Through your 
discourses, through your rich knowledge and great 
Christian experience, and lastly through the personal 
influence of your consecrated life, you have given us a 
strong impulse to a higher Christian life, and thus have 
gained the love and profound respect of us all." 

Besides the period already referred to, Dr. and Mrs. 
Haskell visited this country in 1898. Returning to 
their field in 1899, they labored on till 1911, when they 
finally returned to this country and made their home in 

[422] 



Biographical Sketches 

Oberlin, where Dr. Haskell died March 29, 1914. Just 
after the death of Dr. Haskell, Rev. Joseph K. Greene 
wrote of him: "Love to God and love to man con- 
strained him to be a missionary. 

"He was scrupulously faithful in his work. He 
mastered the Bulgarian language and acquainted him- 
self with Bulgarian life and thought and history. He 
sympathized with the Bulgarians in their sufferings, 
rejoiced in their liberty, and shared in their aspirations. 

"He was most happy in his relations with his fel- 
low-missionaries. Firm in his own convictions and 
frank in the expression of them, he was withal most 
kind, courteous, and considerate. His superior abili- 
ties, sane judgment, choice language, and gentle man- 
ners made him a most valuable member of the mission. 

"Dr. Haskell was preeminently a man of prayer. 
He walked with God, and was a living apostle of Christ 
to all who knew him. It was the man behind the mis- 
sionary which attracted, enlightened, persuaded, and, 
by the grace of God, converted men." 

Mr. Haskell married at South Deerfield, Massa- 
chusetts, August 13, 1862, Margaret H. Bell, daugh- 
ter of Franklin and Minerva Bell, granddaughter of 
Samuel and Olive (Lindsey) Bell and of Joshua and 
Mercy (Lyon) Crowell. Of this marriage three chil- 
dren were born, all of whom are living: Rev. Edward 
Bell Haskell, a missionary in Salonica, Turkey; Mary 
Minerva Haskell, missionary in Samokov, Bulgaria; 
and Henry Joseph Haskell, editor of the Kansas City 
Star, Kansas City, Missouri. 

Mr. Haskell received the honorary degree of Doctor 
of Divinity from Marietta College in 1888. 

Besides various communications which have ap- 
peared in the Missionary Herald, Dr. Haskell has pub- 
lished (in Bulgarian) "Tracts on Traditions and 
Spiritism." 

[423] 



Williams College and Missions 

The following letter from Dr. Gladden concerning 
his three missionary classmates may fittingly find a 
place here. 
Pastor's Study, 

First Congregational Church. 

Columbus, Ohio, June 22, 1911. 
Dear Professor Hewitt: 

Henry Haskell and Henry Schauffler were both in- 
timate friends of mine in college. They were men of 
excellent character and high purpose, with the calling 
to which their lives was afterwards given always in full 
view. Both were members, of course, of the Mills 
Theological and Missionary Society, which held its 
meetings Sunday evenings in the Old Chapel, and both 
were leaders in the Christian work of the college, al- 
ways at the noon prayer meetings and at the class 
prayer meetings. Both were excellent scholars; they 
had parts in the Junior Exhibition, and both took 
honors: Schauffler was Salutatorian and Haskell had 
the Philosophical Oration. That, I should think, made 
them second and third in rank, in the class. Haskell 
was, I think, the younger of the two. 

Those were the days of the simple life in Williams, 
and these men both lived very frugally; it was not pos- 
sible for them to indulge very freely in any kind of lux- 
ury. Both of them were members of the "Anti- Secret 
Confederation" which then was flourishing, and of 
which Garfield had been a leading member. I am sure 
that they enjoyed the entire confidence of their class- 
mates and of the whole college. 

With Schauffler I had more to do because he was 
fond of music, in which I was much interested; but my 
faith in Henry Haskell was very strong, and it is 
to-day. 

You must not forget John T. Gulick, another class- 
mate, who was also a fine, strong character. He was 

[424] 



Biographical Sketches 

not so good a linguist; his preparation for college had 
been defective, but he came out strong in natural sci- 
ence and in philosophy. Dr. Hopkins alwaj^s mani- 
fested high respect for his opinion. He also was a man 
of unblemished character; a clean, honorable, high- 
minded man. I am not at all ashamed of my three mis- 
sionary classmates. Dr. Parsons can give you, doubt- 
less, many illuminating incidents of their college lives. 

Very truly yours, 
Washington Gladden. 

Henry Albert Schauffler, son of Rev. Dr. Wil- 
liam Gottlieb and Mary (Reynolds) Schauffler, was 
born in Constantinople, Turkey, September 4, 1837. 
He was the grandson of Philipp F. and Karolina H. 
(Schuckardt) Schauffler, and of Samuel and Lucy 
(Pitkin) Reynolds. One of the more distinguished an- 
cestors on the mother's side was Captain Thomas Pit- 
kin of Lexington fame. The father was a man of most 
rare qualities, both as a missionary and a translator. 
He was born in Stuttgart, Germany. At the age of 
six he went with his father, who led a colony of Ger- 
mans to Odessa, Russia. He was taught the rudiments 
of reading, writing, and arithmetic by his father's clerk, 
while he learned by himself various languages, ancient 
and modern. At the age of fourteen he worked at his 
father's trade, the turning-lathe. Subsequently pro- 
fessing his faith in Christ, he became interested in for- 
eign missions. Visiting Smyrna, he met there Rev. 
Jonas King (Williams 1816) , who persuaded him to go 
to America for an education. He spent Ave years in 
Andover Seminary, studying often fourteen and six- 
teen hours a day. Concerning his studies, he wrote: 
"Aside from the study of Greek and Hebrew, and gen- 
eral classical reading, I studied the Chaldee, Syriac, 
Arabic, Samaritan, Rabinic, Hebrew-German, Persian, 

[425 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

Turkish, and Spanish; and, in order to be somewhat 
prepared for going to Africa, I extracted and wrote out 
pretty fully the Ethiopic and Coptic grammars." Be- 
ing ordained as a missionary of the American Board 
to the Jews, he studied Arabic and Persian with 
De Sacy, and Turkish with Kieffer in Paris, and then 
went to Constantinople, where he preached in German, 
Spanish, Turkish, and English. For the Jews in Con- 
stantinople, he translated the Bible into Hebrew- Span- 
ish. Besides being a translator he was an earnest 
evangelical preacher, and under the title of "Medita- 
tions on the Last Days of Christ," he published a series 
of discourses which he had delivered in Constantinople. 
He was appointed to lay before the Evangelical Alli- 
ance, to meet in Paris, the "great question of religious 
liberty in Turkey, including the Mohammedans." Af- 
ter the Crimean War he entered the mission among the 
Turks. He was deputed by the mission to present, in 
America and England, the claims of the new mission 
to the Turks. When it was decided to have the Arme- 
nian Mission cover the whole field in Turkey, Dr. 
Schauffler resigned as a missionary of the Board and 
devoted himself to Bible translations. His great work 
was the translation of the Bible into Osmanli-Turkish. 
He published an ancient Spanish version of the Old 
Testament, a translation of the Psalms into Spanish, 
a grammar of the Hebrew language into Spanish, a 
Hebrew-Spanish Lexicon of the Bible, and contributed 
articles in Spanish to a missionary Journal in Salonica. 
He was "able to speak ten languages, and read as many 
more." In recognition of his rare scholarship, the Uni- 
versities of Halle and Wittenberg conferred upon him 
the degrees of D. D. and Ph. D., respectively, and 
Princeton the degree of LL. D. He spent the final 
years of his life with his two youngest sons in New 
York, where he died in 1883, at the age of 85, having 

[426] 



Biographical Sketches 

been in active missionary service nearly half a century. 
He was the founder of a family which has become dis- 
tinguished in the annals of missionary life. Four of his 
sons were graduated at this college — 1859, 1862, 1865, 
and 1867, respectively. 

Henry Albert Schauffler, the subject of this sketch, 
spent his boyhood in Constantinople, where he became 
a Christian at an early age, and where, during the 
Crimean War, he undertook his first Christian work. 
This work was the distribution by himself and three 
brothers of Testaments among the soldiers of the 
French army, 10,000 of whom were encamped five miles 
from his home. 

In these early years he enjoyed rare opportunities 
for obtaining a good general training in the knowledge 
of books and language and in manual labor. He be- 
came an expert swimmer and a skillful carpenter, and 
could draw and paint well. He was a good singer and 
at an early age was taught by his father to play the 
flute. At this time, too, he laid the foundation for his 
linguistic skill, learning not only Turkish, but German, 
French, and Greek. Subsequently, he obtained a 
knowledge of Italian, Spanish, Latin, Hebrew, and 
Bohemian. 

At an early age he was trained in the art of self 
help. He earned money by drawing war pictures for 
the London Illustrated News, and when coming to 
America he paid his way to London by acting as inter- 
preter on one of the vessels which carried prisoners of 
war. 

He prepared for college at home and entered his 
class at Williams at the beginning of Freshman year. 
The class had a large number of members who attained 
distinction in life. Fourteen of its members were of 
Phi Beta Kappa rank; three became foreign mission- 
aries. Among the members of the class were S. G. W. 

[427] 



Williams College and Missions 

Benjamin, Titus Munson Coan, Charles Hall Everest, 
Washington Gladden, John Thomas Gulick, Henry 
Charles Haskell, Ranald Slidell Mackenzie, and Eben 
Burt Parsons. 

In college, Schauffler was one of the leaders among 
the young men. He was a member of the Philologian 
Society, of which he was one of the secretaries; was 
President of the Mills Theological Society; and secre- 
tary of the Art Association. He interested himself in 
those who were left out of the Secret Societies and was 
influential in organizing an Anti-Secret Confederation. 
He contributed several articles to the Williams Quar- 
terly, and was the author of two college songs. He 
ranked among the very foremost scholars of his class, 
having the Latin Salutatory Oration at the Junior Ex- 
hibition, and the Salutatory Oration at Commencement. 
After graduation, he studied theology at Andover, 
and during his seminary course he taught French and 
German. He then studied law at Harvard, in order to 
prepare himself for a professorship in Robert College. 
For three years he was a teacher in Robert College, and 
June 2, 1865, was ordained a missionary of the Ameri- 
can Board to Western Turkey, having Constantinople 
as the center of his labors. Compelled by his own ill 
health and that of two of his children to return to 
America in 1870, he did efficient work in visiting col- 
leges and seminaries as a representative of missionary 
interests. When it was decided by the American Board 
to undertake the work of evangelization in Papal 
Lands, Mr. Schauffler was appointed to inaugurate the 
new mission in Austria. He went there with his fam- 
ily in the spring of 1872, and in October of that year 
he took up his residence at Prague, where he was soon 
joined by Messrs. Clark and Adams with their fam- 
ilies. Two years later he removed to Briinn, in Mora- 
via, where he spent the next seven years. These were 

[428] 



Biographical Sketches 

years of hard patient labor, where progress was re- 
ported from year to year, though often in the face of 
varied opposition. The spirit of courage and hopeful- 
ness with which he labored on, is shown in the follow- 
ing extract from a letter written in 1878: "In secur- 
ing from the Government the right to open a Christian 
bookstore and circulating library, the work has made 
an encouraging advance, promising in the future im- 
portant results. We have put in circulation a large 
number of books and tracts, some of which will cer- 
tainly bear fruit to the glory of God. If the first hope- 
ful convert of the Mahratta mission was awakened by 
the receiving of a tract; if the church at Marsovan 
sprang from a tract bought in Beirut eighteen years 
before; if similar messengers of truth could secure 
such wonderful results in the Japanese prison at Otsu; 
may we not hope, and should we not earnestly pray, 
for God's blessing upon these silent preachers of truth 
now in many Austrian families, where the living 
preacher would not be admitted? The work of the 
Board in this empire will at length, with the divine 
blessing, be crowned with most gratifying results; but 
not without earnest consecration, self-denying work, 
and the united prayers of those here who love the truth, 
and of those at home who walk by faith and not by 
sight." 

The ill health of Mrs. Schauffler, caused to a great 
extent by the hardships and persecutions she had en- 
dured in Brunn, led Mr. and Mrs. Schauirler to come 
to America in the spring of 1881. His purpose to re- 
turn soon to Austria was frustrated by the providence 
of God which opened to him a work, in some respects, 
even more important than that in which he had been a 
pioneer in Austria. Americans as well as Bohemians 
had come to realize the needs of the 250,000 Bohemi- 
ans in this country who were without religious leader- 

[ 429 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

ship and not brought into touch with the religious life 
of America. At the invitation of Rev. Charles Terry- 
Collins of Cleveland, Ohio, who had interested himself 
in the large Bohemian population of that city, Mr. 
Schauffler visited Cleveland, and was so impressed 
with the needs of the field that he accepted the call to 
undertake the Bohemian work in that city. The work, 
at first supported by individuals, was in the fall of 1883 
adopted by the Congregational churches of Cleveland, 
financial help being also received from the American 
Home Missionary Society. 

By the appointment of the Congregational churches 
of Cleveland Mr. Schauffler became City Missionary, 
while by the appointment of the Congregational Home 
Missionary Society, he was made superintendent of 
their work among all the Slavic peoples of the United 
States. The death of Rev. Mr. Collins imposed on Mr. 
Schauffler the additional duty of keeping up the inter- 
est in the Bohemian church Mr. Collins had awakened. 
The success of Mr. Schauffler 's work is attested by 
the three Bohemian churches and one Polish church 
in that city, by one English church made up chiefly 
of Bohemians, and by the training school for 
women workers, the building for whom and the 
money for its running expenses, were secured by his 
efforts. 

The work among the 50,000 Bohemians in Chicago 
was largely due to Mr. Schauffler's interest in that 
people, while his vision of the needs of the work he was 
doing led to the establishment of the training school for 
Slavic evangelists and preachers in connection with 
Oberlin Theological Seminary. 

He was nearing the completion of forty years of 
intelligent and devoted service, sixteen years in Tur- 
key and Austria, and nearly twenty-four in connection 
with the Congregational Home Missionary Society, 

[ 430 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

when he was called to his rich reward and to a higher 
service. He died in Cleveland, February 15, 1905. 

At his funeral the church was crowded by Bohe- 
mians of all classes and Americans who had known him 
as a sincere friend, and had come to know him as a most 
devoted servant of God. 

Those who knew him most intimately speak of his 
absolute devotion to duty and his absolute faith in God 
as his most striking characteristics. He was always 
the advocate of the highest ideals, and along with su- 
perior intellectual powers were combined an energy 
and a persistency of nature which brought things to 
pass. 

Rev. Dr. E. A. Adams writes of him in the Home 
Missionary : "Of Dr. Schauffler as a friend and com- 
panion one would love to write much. No sacrifice 
was too great if a friend was to be helped. Master of 
at least five languages and able to make himself under- 
stood in several more, inheriting a love of music that 
might easily have become a passion, quick at repartee, 
seeing always the bright side, he was the life of any 
social circle of which he formed a part. But he was 
always and everywhere, with all his talents, with all his 
wit, a man of God, subordinating everything to the 
service of Him whom now face to face he sees." 

The following extract is from the obituary 
notice which appeared in the Missionary Her- 
ald for 1905: "Comparatively few appreciate the 
great value of the work accomplished by Dr. Schauf- 
fler in behalf of the Slavs in this country, in connection 
with the Congregational Home Missionary Society. 
His knowledge of their language and of the country 
from which they came, and his great love for this peo- 
ple, combined with his energy and wisdom in organiza- 
tion, made him a great power for good. In him home 
and foreign missions have been combined in a most 

[481] 



Williams College and Missions 

striking way. It is possible that he reached more Bo- 
hemians in his oversight of various congregations in the 
United States than he could have done had he re- 
mained in Briinn, a city toward which his thoughts al- 
ways turned with strong affection. We shall greatly 
miss his genial presence and his effective utterances in 
behalf of Christian work both at home and abroad." 

The Schauffler Missionary Training School in 
Cleveland is a worthy and fitting memorial of the man, 
and an institution that is perpetuating his beneficent 
influence. 

A sketch of Dr. Schauffler's life by his son, Rev. 
Henry Park Schauffler, and a Commemorative Address 
by his daughter, Mrs. Benjamin W. Labaree, have 
been recently published. 

Dr. Schauffler received from his Alma Mater the 
degree of Master of Arts in course, and the honorary 
degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1890. 

He married on November 25, 1862, at Springfield, 
Massachusetts, Clara G., daughter of James H. and 
Rachel (Capen) Gray, granddaughter of Harrison 
and Clarissa (Eastham) Gray and of Theophilus and 
Miranda (Colton) Capen, and a descendant of John 
Drake, who came from England to Windsor, Connect- 
icut, in 1635, and of Stephen Hopkins, who came over 
on the Mayflower in 1620. She died September 3, 
1883. 

He next married on July 28, 1892, Clara, daughter 
of Donley Hobart of Cleveland, Ohio. 

By his first marriage he had six sons and two daugh- 
ters, of whom all but one son who died in infancy, are 
living: Dr. William Gray Schauffler, Lakewood, New 
Jersey; Charles Edward Schauffler, , in business in Chi- 
cago; Mary Alice, who married Rev. Benjamin W. 
Labaree, a missionary; Rev. Henry Park Schauffler, 
a minister in New York; Frederick Herrick Schauf- 

[432] / 



Biographical Sketches 

fler, in business in New York; Rachel Capen 
Schauffler, teacher and author, Lakewood, New Jer- 
sey; Robert Haven Schauffler, author, Greenbush, 
Massachusetts. 

By his second marriage he had one son and two 
daughters, Lawrence, Grace, and Margaret Schauf- 
fler, who live in Oberlin, Ohio. 

A letter from Rev. Dr. Washington Gladden con- 
cerning his three missionary classmates is printed in 
connection with the sketch of Henry C. Haskell. 



CLASS OF 1860 

William Wilberfokce Chapin, son of Oliver 
Chapin, was born at Somers, Connecticut, December 
2, 1836. The father was a graduate of Williams in 
the class of 1805, and was for one year (1807-08) a 
tutor here. He studied medicine but never practised 
this profession. He became a farmer in his native 
town, where he held various positions of trust and was 
greatly respected. For many years he was town clerk 
and treasurer, and justice of the peace. He was one 
of the principal supporters of the Congregational 
church, of which he was a member. He is described 
as "a lover of good men, and the friend and patron of 
all good enterprises." 

The son was converted at the age of seventeen, in 
1854, and united with the Congregational Church of 
Somers in November of that year. He fitted for col- 
lege at Munson Academy and at Andover and entered 
college as a Freshman in 1856. Among his classmates 
were James Madison Barker, James Carruthers Green- 
ough, James Haswell Harwood, George Boswell 
Leavitt, Edward William Morley. His college life 
was marked by his conscientious devotion to duty and 
by the fidelity and assiduity with which he applied him- 

[433] 



Williams College and Missions 

self to all the studies of the curriculum. He was a 
member of the Delta Upsilon Fraternity, and of the 
Lyceum of Natural History. He graduated with Phi 
Beta Kappa rank, and at Commencement had the as- 
signment of the Natural History Oration. He was a 
member of Dr. Chadbourne's Expedition to Labrador 
in 1860. 

He studied theology at Andover Theological Sem- 
inary where he was graduated in 1863. During the 
middle year of his seminary course he decided to de- 
vote himself to the work of missions. He was ordained 
at Somers, Connecticut, September 24, 1863, and two 
days later, September 26, was married at Deny, New 
Hampshire, to Miss Katharine Isabella Hayes. He 
sailed from Boston, under the appointment of the 
American Board, for India January 7, 1864, arriving 
at Bombay May 19, and at Ahmednagar June 4. 
From January 1, 1865, he was stationed at Pimplus, 
and on March 22 of that year, after having been in In- 
dia only ten months, he died of diphtheria at Ahmed- 
nagar. His sickness was brief — of less than a week's 
duration. His last hours were free from pain, and 
illumined by the Savior's presence. After sending mes- 
sages to his relatives and friends, to the missionary cir- 
cle and native Christians, and the students of Andover 
Seminary, he remarked: "The mansions are prepared, 
the door is open, they are waiting for me." Pointing 
up, with his arm at full length, he said, "There is Jesus, 
I want to praise Him"; and again, "Jesus has a crown 
for me, I want to take it." His grave is near to that 
of William Hervey (Williams 1824), who died of 
cholera in May, 1832, and whose services as missionary 
lasted but little more than a year. Mr. Chapin was 
the youngest member of the mission and was of great 
promise. 

Rev. Allen Hazen, D.D., wrote of him: "Mr. 

[434] 



Biographical Sketches 

Chapin had made a fine commencement of his work. 
He had preached several times with great acceptance. 
He loved the work of preparation for preaching. He 
was always busy and earnest in his studies, and in all 
his preparation for future service. Among his dying 
words, in one of his messages, he said, 'I do not regret 
coming to India,' and we would never say, or think, 
this is a 'waste.' To the seminary students at Andover 
he sent this message: 'Tell them all to cultivate a mis- 
sionary spirit, and to send some one to take my place; 
for the messenger has come to take me home.' Who 
will hear this call?" , 

Mr. Barker, his predecessor at Pimplus, wrote from 
Bombay, to which place he had come to embark for 
America: "Mr. Chapin seemed to me admirably fit- 
ted for the missionary work, by natural gift and by ed- 
ucation. His progress in the language was almost 
without a parallel, and although he had been in the 
country less than a year, he had already begun to 
preach. He was my associate in Pimplus for a few 
weeks, and I had a good opportunity to see how fa- 
vorable an impression he made, both upon the na- 
tive Christians and the heathen, by his cheerfulness, 
gentleness, and winning ways. They felt sure that 
he loved them, and his talents commanded their 
respect." 

Samuel Henry Kellogg, son of Rev. Samuel and 
Mary Price (Henry) Kellogg, was born September 6, 
1839, at Quogue, Long Island. The family, with all 
others bearing the name in the United States, is said to 
be sprung from three Kellogg brothers who came from 
Scotland to New England in 1640. Some of the an- 
cestors on the mother's side (named Lockwood) were 
officers in the Revolutionary War. From 1640 on 
many of the Kelloggs have been ministers or deacons. 

[ 435 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

The father of the subject of this sketch was a Presby- 
terian minister. 

The son united with the Presbyterian Church of 
Hampstead, New York, at the age of thirteen. Ex- 
cept for six months' study at the Haverstraw Moun- 
tain Institute, New York, he obtained his preparation 
for college with his parents at home. He entered 
Williams in 1856, but on account of ill health he re- 
mained but one year. At Williams he was a member 
of the Kappa Alpha Fraternity. Two years later he 
entered Princeton College, where he was graduated in 
1861. He then entered the Theological Seminary at 
Princeton, where he took the full three years' course, 
graduating in 1864. During his Senior year in the 
seminary he acted as tutor of mathematics in the uni- 
versity. His decision to adopt foreign mission work 
he attributed to a sermon which he heard from Dr. 
Henry M. Scudder, in the First Presbyterian Church 
in Princeton. He was licensed by the Presbytery of 
Hudson April 21, 1863, and ordained as an evangelist 
by the same Presbytery April 20, 1864. His plans to 
embark for India were delayed owing to the Civil War, 
but finally he and his wife took passage in a merchant 
vessel from Boston to Ceylon. On the third day out 
the ship was struck by a cyclone, in which the captain 
lost his life and the ship was barely saved from founder- 
ing. This disaster was followed by a plot formed by 
the crew to get rid of the new commander, who had 
proved to be perfectly incompetent. It being found 
out that Mr. Kellogg had studied navigation, he was 
asked by the new captain to take the place of the mate 
in directing the vessel. He accordingly acted as 
navigator until they reached Ceylon, 148 days from 
Boston. 

He was first placed in charge of all the work at the 
Barhpur Mission, where his first experience was hard, 

[ 436 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

but the necessities of the position gave him an early 
command of the language, so that within six months 
he was able to take his turn in the Sabbath Urdu serv- 
ice in the native church. For a time he taught in the 
Anglo- Vernacular High School of Futtehgurh and did 
evangelistic work, including the instruction of the na- 
tive preachers. About 1870 he began the important 
work of preparing a Hindi Grammar. On account of 
the reputation gained in this work he obtained a place 
in the Congress of Oriental Scholars held in Stock- 
holm, in 1889, under the presidency of King Oscar II. 
The grammar was prescribed as an authority to be stud- 
ied by all candidates for the India civil service. On 
April 1, 1871, he returned to America, where he spent 
six months in the interests of the Foreign Board. On 
his return to India, in 1872, he was appointed by the 
Synod of India as professor in the theological semi- 
nary recently established at Allahabad. Owing to the 
death of his wife in 1876, he returned to this country 
with his four motherless children. In this year he be- 
came the stated supply of the Third Presbyterian 
Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was installed 
its pastor July 5, 1877. In the fall of this year he ac- 
cepted a call to the chair of systematic theology in 
the Western Theological Seminary, Alleghen}^, Penn- 
sylvania. He held this position until 1886. During 
the year 1881-82 he was also stated supply of East 
Liberty Church, Pittsburgh, and of the First Church, 
Pittsburgh, during the years 1884-86. In this latter 
year he accepted a call from St. James' Square Presby- 
terian Church of Toronto, Canada, where he labored 
with eminent success until September 7, 1892. For a 
time in this last year he occupied the chair of Hebrew 
and Old Testament exegesis in Knox Divinity College, 
Toronto. In 1893 he returned again to India, this time 
to engage in the retranslation of the Old Testament 

[437 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

from the Hebrew into Hindi, under the auspices of the 
British and Foreign Bible Society, having his head- 
quarters at Landour. 

Dr. Kellogg, while in this country and in Canada, 
both as pastor and as professor, exerted a strong influ- 
ence in leading young men to enter the foreign mis- 
sionary service. He is said to have had part in train- 
ing thirty-eight missionaries for the foreign field. He 
was suddenly killed by a fall from his bicycle, on May 
2, 1899, near his home in Landour. He died in the 
60th year of his age. In accordance with a desire 
which Dr. Kellogg had frequently expressed that no 
eulogy should be spoken over his grave, the only ad- 
dress at his funeral was a brief one in Hindustani by 
Dr. Hooper, who had been his associate for over six 
years in the revision of the Old Testament. 

Dr. Kellogg possessed, in an unusual degree, that 
quality which is so important in the life of a mission- 
ary, versatility of genius. He had superior gifts as a 
preacher, teacher, and lecturer. It was said of him 
that he could also take a photograph, prescribe a po- 
tion, or steer a ship. While his varied knowledge made 
him a brilliant conversationalist, his knowledge was not 
superficial, but thorough and accurate. Along with a 
scholarship which was varied and thorough, he pos- 
sessed a superior ability in imparting to others the ideas 
which he had even in subjects that were profound. He 
was especially eminent as a student of the Bible, which 
he had studied with an ardent love, and into the mean- 
ing of which he had acquired a phenomenal insight. 
With all his varied gifts and accomplishments, he was 
simple and unostentatious in his personal character, 
and faithful in his friendships. Possessed as he was of 
great brain power and of a mind that moved in a logical, 
orderly way, he was preeminently a teacher and theo- 
logian, while he was also distinguished as a linguist, a 

[438] 



Biographical Sketches 

powerful preacher, a successful missionary, a versatile 
and vigorous writer. 

He received from Princeton University the hon- 
orary degree of Master of Arts in 1864, and of Doc- 
tor of Divinity in 1877, and the degree of Doctor of 
Laws from Wooster University in 1892. He was a 
member of the American Oriental Society, of the In- 
ternational Congress of Orientalists at Stockholm 
in 1889, and of the same at London in 1891. In 1891 
he delivered the Stone Lectures in Princeton Theo- 
logical Seminary. 

He was married May 3, 1864, in Montrose, Penn- 
sylvania, to Miss Antoinette Whiting Hartwell, daugh- 
ter of Philander R. and Louisa (Slawson) Hartwell. 
She died March 4, 1876. 

He next married May 20, 1879, in Pittsburgh, 
Miss Sara Constance Macrum, daughter of James M. 
and Hephzibah ( Wallis) Macrum, and a descendant of 
Scotch-Irish and English people who came from Ire- 
land and Scotland to the United States. She is still 
living and resides in Philadelphia. 

Of ten children born to Dr. Kellogg, a son and two 
daughters by the first wife, and two sons and two 
daughters by the second are still living. Two little 
children by the first marriage died in India. A son 
also, Alfred Hartwell Kellogg, born April 26, 1867, 
a graduate of Wooster University in 1888, died in 
1890. The surviving children are: Mrs. George Inglis, 
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Frederic Sherlock Kel- 
logg, M.D. (Princeton 1893), Pittsburgh; Mrs. Olin 
S. Fellows, Middletown, New York; Rev. Edwin 
Henry Kellogg (Princeton 1902), Carlisle, Pennsyl- 
vania; Mrs. John B. Kelso, Wooster, Ohio; Robert 
Wallis Kellogg, Carlisle, Pennsylvania; Amy Con- 
stance Kellogg. 

Dr. Kellogg published "A Grammar of the Hindi 

[439] 



Williams College and Missions 

Language" (1876), an enlarged and revised edition of 
which appeared in 1893; "The Jews: or Prediction and 
Fulfilment" (1883); "From Death to Resurrection" 
(1885); "The Light of Asia and the Light of the 
World" (1885) ; "The Book of Leviticus," in the Ex- 
positors' Bible series (1891) ; "The Genesis and Growth 
of Religion" (1892), being the Stone Lectures deliv- 
ered at Princeton Seminary that year; "Are Premil- 
lennialists Right?"; "A Handbook of Comparative Re- 
ligion." He also published essays in the Hindustani in 
magazines printed in that language at Allahabad; be- 
sides which he published in English numerous essays 
in the Princeton Review, Missionary Review, Catholic 
Presbyterian (Edinburgh), Friend of India (Cal- 
cutta) , and other religious periodicals. Since his death 
there has been published a volume of his sermons with 
the title, "The Past, a Prophecy of the Future." This 
volume has been most favorably noticed by prominent 
reviewers on both sides of the water. Other sermons 
and theological lectures left by Dr. Kellogg will prob- 
ably be published at some later date. 



CLASS OF 1861 

Chauncey Goodrich, the third of six sons of 
Elijah Hubbard and Mary Northrop (Washburn) 
Goodrich, was born in Hinsdale, Massachusetts, June 
4, 1836. His grandparents were Elijah Hubbard and 
Mabel (Nicholson) Goodrich, and Abraham and 
Olive (Wright) Washburn. 

The name Goodrich is Saxon, being originally 
Godric, from which have arisen numerous forms of 
spelling the word. The tribe or family of the name 
evidently existed at a very early period in Great Brit- 
ain. One of the earliest evidences of the existence of 
the family, it is believed, is found in the ruins of Good- 

[440] 



Biographical Sketches 

rich Castle, which is situated in Herefordshire, Wales, 
on the east bank of the Wye, and which probably dates 
from a time anterior to the Conquest. The name, 
Goodrich is often mentioned in English history and 
usually in honorable connection. The first emigrant 
of this name to come to New England probably left 
the mother country to escape from the civil and reli- 
gious agitation which preceded the war between 
Charles I and the Parliament of England. Before 
1650, there were at least five original settlers of this 
name in New England. These, with the dates of their 
arrival, were : William Goodrich of Watertown, Massa- 
chusetts, 1636; John Goodrich of Watertown, 1642; 
Richard Goodrich of Guilford, Connecticut, 1639; 
John Goodrich of Wethersfield, Connecticut, and his 
brother William, who were born in England, probably 
in or near Bury St. Edmonds, County Suffolk, and 
who came to America in 1643. John Goodrich died 
in Wethersfield, April, 1680, and his widow married 
Lieutenant Thomas Tracy of Norwich, Connecticut, 
the emigrant ancestor of the Tracy family. William 
was the ancestor of nearly all of the name of Goodrich 
in America. 

Many of that name have become distinguished in 
the history of the nation. Of such the following may be 
named : Charles Goodrich, one of the first settlers 
of the town of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, was a 
member of the Provincial Congress in 1774, fought 
at the battle of Bennington, Vermont, and was always 
prominent in public life ; Caleb Goodrich, also of 
Pittsfield, also served in the Revolutionary War, hav- 
ing command of a body of men at Fort Ann in 
June, 1777, and was present at the surrender of Bur- 
goyne's army; Rev. Elizur Goodrich, a graduate of 
Yale in the class of 1752, a tutor there in 1755, and 
subsequently a member of the corporation, was distin- 

[441 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

guished as a scholar, teacher, and preacher; Michael 
Goodrich, of Sharon, Connecticut, as a soldier in the 
War of the Revolution, was in the engagement at Dan- 
bury, Connecticut, and was present at the surrender of 
Burgoyne at Saratoga; Josiah Goodrich, born at 
Rocky Hill, Connecticut, served under Commodore 
Perry in his campaign on Lake Erie, and for his brav- 
ery received a silver medal from the State of Pennsyl- 
vania; Chauncey Goodrich, a graduate of Yale in 1779 
and a tutor there, subsequently became an eminent law- 
yer in Hartford, Connecticut, served six years in Con- 
gress, was Mayor of Hartford, and Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor of Connecticut, and a delegate to the celebrated 
Hartford Convention; James Goodrich, born in Han- 
cock, Massachusetts, served as an officer in the War 
of 1812, being for three months under command of 
General William Henry Harrison at Lake George, 
afterwards settling in Tioga County, Pennsylvania, he 
held there various offices; John Goodrich, who was 
born in Middlebury, Vermont, and settled in Cayuga 
County, New York, enlisted in the War of 1812, under 
General Winfleld Scott, was in fourteen battles, and 
went through the war, a most efficient soldier; Alfred 
Russell Goodrich, born in Gill, Massachusetts, settled 
in Vernon, Connecticut, became eminent as physician, 
as merchant and manufacturer, held many public of- 
fices and was distinguished for his scientific tastes and 
attainments; Grant Goodrich, born in Milton, New 
York, removed to Chicago where he became eminent as 
a lawyer, being for several years one of the Judges of 
the Superior Court, was active in promoting the ma- 
terial, moral and religious interests of Chicago, and 
was one of the founders of the Northwestern Univer- 
sity and the Garrett Biblical Institute at Evanston; 
Chauncey A. Goodrich, a graduate of Yale in 1810, a 
tutor there for two years, and from 1817 until his 

[442 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

death, a professor in the College or Theological Semi- 
nary, the author of various books; Samuel Griswold 
Goodrich, born in Ridgefield, Connecticut, August 19, 
1793, became the author, known in literature as "Peter 
Parley," of whom Mr. Rufus W. Griswold wrote, "All 
of Mr. Goodrich's productions inculcate pure morality 
and cheerful views of life." These were among the 
ancestors or closely related to the ancestors of the sub- 
ject of our sketch. 

The father of Chauncey Goodrich, who was a 
farmer, and a class leader in the Methodist church, 
lived to an advanced age. His marked characteristics 
were absolute integrity, Puritan firmness and simplic- 
ity, and earnest faith. He is also spoken of as a ready 
speaker and possessed of mechanical skill. Owing to 
the influence of the mother's example and her pious 
training, the son became the subject of religious im- 
pressions in early childhood, dating his conversion at 
the age of ten, in the time of a great revival in his native 
town. It was soon after this that he formed the plan 
of becoming a minister. 

His preparatory studies were pursued at the Hins- 
dale Academy, Hinsdale, Massachusetts, and the 
Union High School in Burlington, Vermont. His 
choice of a college was made, in part, probably, by the 
influence of Professor Lincoln, who was at one time 
principal of the Academy at Hinsdale and who became 
Professor of Latin at Williams in 1853. He entered 
college as Freshman at the age of twenty-one. He 
made his decision to become a missionary in his Sopho- 
more year, being influenced by an address of Dr. 
William Schauffler who visited the college at that time. 

The college programs of the period show that 
he was one of the prominent members of his class. He 
was a member of the Philologian Society, of which he 
was for a time vice-president ; was also a vice-president 

[443] 



Williams College and Missions 

of the Reading-Room Association; was a member of 
the Committee on Songs for the Biennial Jubilee; and 
of the Senior Quartette. He belonged to the Delta 
Upsilon Fraternity. He was also among the foremost 
scholars of his class, having the Latin Oration at 
Junior Exhibition, and graduating with Phi Beta 
Kappa rank. At Commencement he had the Mission- 
ary Oration, his subject being "A Single Aim." 

After graduation he entered Union Theological 
Seminary, where he spent one year, completing his 
course at Andover. He was ordained at Hinsdale, 
September 21, 1864, and on January 21, with his wife, 
sailed from New York for Shanghai to join the North 
China Mission. He arrived at Shanghai July 22, 
1865, and Peking, September 13, of the same year. 
He acquired the Chinese language with great facility 
and was soon able to use it fluently. Some months 
after his arrival in China, one of the secretaries of the 
American Board wrote of him: "Rev. Chauncey 
Goodrich is at Peking. He has shown a remarkable 
ability in acquiring the language, and gives promise of 
the largest usefulness in the missionary work, a fit 
associate of Henry Blodgett. His admirable tact, en- 
terprise, conception of the work, and faith in its ulti- 
mate success, are all that could be desired." Mr. 
Goodrich published in the Missionary Herald for De- 
cember, 1867, an interesting article on his method of 
learning the Chinese language, from which the follow- 
ing extract is taken: "I adopted a child's method of 
learning the Chinese language, with this difference, that 
I took to my books the first year of my life (in China) 
instead of the fourth or fifth ; and in my reading I have 
still followed a child's method. A child learns the col- 
loquial first, — the every-day language of the people, — 
and when he begins to read, he first learns, after the 
alphabet, to read pa, ma, cat, dog, horse, etc., — all words 

[444] 



Biographical Sketches 

of the easiest colloquial. In a similar way I have de- 
voted myself entirely to colloquial phrases and charac- 
ters. First I learned the alphabet (radicals), 214. 
About half of them were given me by a lady on board 
ship, — all she had. It was a great mistake that they 
were not furnished me in America." In November, 
1866, he went to Tung-Chou, to open a chapel, on 
which occasion he wrote: "I have to write now that I 
have a parish, and a chapel that I may call particularly 
my own. The place — Tung-Chou — is twelve miles 
south of Peking, a walled city, two miles in length and 
one mile in breadth within the walls. The place I es- 
timate to contain 50,000 or 75,000 inhabitants; a 
thriving business city. I went there the 14th of No- 
vember (1866). On Saturday, November 17, I 
preached in the chapel for the first time, not without 
some anxiety, knowing there would be a large crowd to 
hear; but they all sat or stood quietly till I had finished 
speaking, when I gave copies of the Gospels to the read- 
ing men. Since then, I have preached there nearly 
every day, always to a numerous and attentive 
audience." 

Along with this work of preaching and continuing 
his study of the Chinese, he took up the study of Mon- 
gol, translating into it some of the Gospels, oversaw a 
boys' school, made tours to distant towns, and had 
charge of the printing press, publishing numerous 
tracts and pamphlets. 

For a time he was engaged at a country station 
(Yiicho, 170 miles west from Peking), but not being 
able to remain there on account of his wife's health, he 
was called to assist in the Theological Seminary at 
Tung-Chou. Here he taught Old Testament History, 
Church History, Homiletics, and Pastoral Theology. 
In the latter part of 1874 he began a long trip with 
two others into the interior, crossing the Yellow River 

[ 445 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

and travelling in Shansi as far as the provincial Cap- 
ital. He was gone four and a half months, travelling 
2200 miles, preaching often and distributing quantities 
of books. In 1877 he writes of the growth of his work, 
saying that when he went to Peking, about twelve years 
before, there were but three members of the church, 
while the last annual report showed a membership of 
200 to which sixty had been added in the current year. 
During the nearly half a century of service in China, 
whether as pastor, preacher, teacher, author, translator, 
Dr. Goodrich has ever been an indefatigable worker, and 
manifested an unreserved devotion to his work. He 
has ever had great enthusiasm for China and has never 
failed to prophesy great things for the future of the 
people. Even when he has returned to this country for 
recreation, he has been busy speaking to the churches 
or writing for the press. The above summary of his 
offices does not tell the complete story of his services. 
A better idea of a missionary's life may be gathered 
from the following illuminating extract from a letter 
written by Dr. Goodrich to the secretary of his class: 
"Up as usual at 5:30. Morning study of the Bible be- 
fore and after breakfast. Breakfast at 7. Prayer 
with theological students at 8, half hour. A most in- 
teresting study of the resurrection, 1 Cor., 15. After 
prayers I ran out to the street as fast as my feet would 
carry me to get some money changed. This cost a 
clean half hour. Then Bible translation for an hour. 
Another hour in preparation for class, and fifteen min- 
utes practice on the cornet with a helper. At 11, first 
class in seminary for an hour, beginning with a ser- 
mon plan and criticism, a short quiz on a pastor's duties, 
followed by a lecture of a half hour on Luther. At 12 
I call on Dr. Ingram and a half hour's visit with a 
eunuch from the palace. He is one of a hundred and 
waits on the Empress Dowager. It was exceedingly 

[446] 



Biographical Sketches 

interesting to me, and I gained quite a little informa- 
tion about Pier Majesty and about the Emperor. 
12:30 dinner. After dinner I donned my overalls and 
prepared to do something new." 

Dr. Goodrich is still in active service and is one of 
a very few missionaries of the Board who are nearing 
the completion of a half century of service. Happily, 
while he is granted the privilege of seeing with his own 
eyes the partial fulfillment of his own earlier predictions 
of a "golden harvest" in China, he is enjoying the Old 
Testament blessing promised to those who are planted in 
the house of the Lord, — they shall still bring forth fruit 
in old age. 

Dr. Goodrich's more important work in China 
might be brought under the three-fold classification of 
evangelistic, educational, and literary. He has been 
a teacher in the college from the time of its founding, 
about twenty years ago; dean of the theological semi- 
nary twenty-five years; a writer .of hymns for over 
thirty years ; and engaged in the work of Bible transla- 
tion for over twenty years. He has also been secretary 
of the North China Mission. His ability and success as 
a teacher were promptly recognized by the authorities 
of the English College in Peking, in which he was in- 
vited to become a professor. 

His Alma Mater honored him with the degree of 
Doctor of Divinity in 1891. 

He married first, September 10, 1864, Abbie, 
daughter of Stephen Hoyt Ambler of Green River, 
New York, who died at Tung-Chou, September 1, 
1874; married second, May 31, 1878, Justina Emily, 
daughter of Amos Warner Wheeler of Seymour, Con- 
necticut, who had been connected with the Japan Mis- 
sion. She died of dysentery, at Tung-Chou, Septem- 
ber 4, 1878, after an illness of a few days, and after a 
happy married life of about three months. He next 

[ 447 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

married May 13, 1880, Sarah Boardman Clapp, daugh- 
ter of Rev. Luther and Harriet Priscilla (Stedman) 
Clapp, a descendant of Roger Clapp, who came from 
Devonshire, England, to Nantasket, on the Mary and 
John, in 1630. 

Of four children born to him, two, a daughter and 
son, by the last marriage, are living: Grace Goodrich, 
a graduate of the class of 1912 at Oberlin College, and 
Luther Carrington Goodrich, a member of the class of 
1917 at Williams. 

He has published: "A Chinese-English Pocket 
Dictionary," containing 10,400 characters; "A Book of 
Mandarin Colloquial Sentences" (some 20,000) ; "A 
Chinese Hymnal" (in collaboration with Henry Blod- 
gett) ; various tracts, essays and sermons. He is 
chairman of a committee of five who have been engaged 
for years in translating the Bible into the Universal 
Mandarin Colloquial. This is the spoken language of 
the whole of China, excluding the South East Seg- 
ment, from Shanghai to Canton, and includes at least 
three-quarters of the inhabitants of China. All of the 
New Testament and a quarter of the Old Testament 
are completed. 

Frederick Hicks, son of Uel and Betsey (Wal- 
bridge) Hicks, was born in Bennington, Vermont, Sep- 
tember 26, 1834. He was the grandson of Charles 
Hicks, who, with his sons, drove the first stages over 
the mountain on the route between Bennington and 
Boston, and also southward in the direction of Pitts- 
field. His great-great-grandfather, on his father's side, 
was killed in the battle of Lexington. His great-grand- 
father on his mother's side was General Ebenezer Wal- 
bridge, who was born in Norwich, Connecticut, in 1738 
and went to Bennington in 1765. He was an officer in 
Colonel Warner's regiment of Green Mountain Boys 

[448] 



Biographical Sketches 

in the winter campaign of 1776, in Canada; served as 
adjutant in the Bennington battle; in 1780, succeeded 
Colonel Herrick in the command of the Bennington 
regiment, and afterward became brigadier-general. 
He was also representative of the town in the General 
Assembly, in 1778 and 1780, and a member of the State 
Council for eight years, 1786-95. The Walbridge fam- 
ily traces its ancestry back to Suffolk County, England. 
"Sir William de Walbridge accompanied King Richard 
Cceur de Lion to the Holy Land, in the 4th crusade, 
and there greatly distinguished himself." 

William Hicks, an uncle of the subject of our sketch, 
was graduated at Williams as Valedictorian of his class 
in 1829. A brother, George, was a member of the class 
of 1864 here; enlisted as lieutenant in the Fourteenth 
Vermont Infantry; was in the battle of Gettysburg; 
and was killed before Petersburg July 30, 1864. He 
had been appointed acting adjutant; and for gallant 
services, a commission of brevet captaincy was made out 
for him, by vote of Congress, and sent to his parents. 

Frederick Hicks, before going to college, was for 
four years clerk in a store in Hoosick Falls, New York. 
He united with the First Church, Bennington, March 
5, 1854, and in 1857 entered college as a Freshman. In 
college he was a member of the Anti- Secret Confedera- 
tion; of the Mills Theological Society; of the Lyceum of 
Natural History, and was one of the party which went 
to Greenland under the auspices of the Lyceum of Nat- 
ural History, in 1860. Either before coming to college, 
or while here, he imbibed the spirit of the missionary 
zeal and enterprise which first showed itself here in 
1806. Early in his college course he consecrated himself 
unreservedly to the cause of Christ, and the first work 
he did after graduation, when he went to Central Amer- 
ica as a self-supporting colporteur and missionary, was 
in the spirit of his earlier consecration. Partly in obedi- 

[449] 



Williams College and Missions 

ence to his idea of self-support, and partly for the pur- 
pose of being independent of any society, he did not 
offer himself to the American Board, and when subse- 
quently he received appointments from the American 
Bible Society and the American Tract Society, he re- 
mained loyal to his original purpose. For the purpose 
of finding out the religious condition of the people, he 
visited Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Colum- 
bia, preaching, and distributing bibles and religious 
tracts. In his enthusiasm he wrote: "I know the power 
of the Word, and God's influence upon the minds and 
hearts of the people, and will pray on and hope on." 

He entered earnestly upon the study of the Spanish 
language and became one of the most proficient in the 
use of the language of the Spanish-speaking residents 
there. In January, 1865, he engaged in steady Christian 
work in Panama, where he opened a school for the gratu- 
itous instruction of colored children, and at the solicita- 
tion of some foreign families, taught their children for 
a time. He also established a Sunday-school for the 
children of foreign residents, conducted religious serv- 
ices on Sunday and week-day evenings, visited the sick 
and poor, held for some time a service of Scriptural ex- 
position and prayer, and often, when there was no 
clergyman, officiated at funerals. After a brief visit 
to his home in the summer of 1865, during which time 
he presented the claims of his missionary work in vari- 
ous churches, he returned to his work in Panama in 
the fall. On account of having a wider field of in- 
fluence, he accepted a position in the United States Con- 
sulate, where he was for a time in full charge. He used 
the Consulate for Sabbath services, and had a Bible 
Repository in connection with his position. 

In October, 1868, he again revisited the States, and 
was ordained to preach by a Council of Congregational 
churches, in the First Church, Bennington, December 

[450] 



Biographical Sketches 

23 of that year, Professor Albert Hopkins preaching 
the sermon. 

During the temporary absence of the pastor, he sup- 
plied for some weeks the pulpit of the church in Ben- 
nington where he had been ordained and of which he 
was a member. 

Owing to the illness of his wife, he left her at a san- 
itarium, in Dansville, New York, and returned to Pan- 
ama, in March of that year. Through his instrumen- 
tality, a church edifice costing $12,000 was erected. A 
church was organized and regular services were held. 
His health, however, soon failed. A severe fall on the 
ice, which he suffered in March before leaving this coun- 
try, had developed into a severe form of hip disease, and 
made it necessary for him to rest from his work. Re- 
turning to this country in September, 1869, he expe- 
rienced some benefit from treatment at Dansville. Go- 
ing with his family to Bennington in September of the 
following year, the hip disease having disappeared, he 
hoped for a recovery of his health. But partly from 
constitutional tendency, and chiefly from overwork and 
exposure in an unhealthy climate, he was an invalid. 
He died February 24, 1871, at the early age of 36. 

Though his life was short in the number of years, 
it was rich in accomplishment, as well as in example 
and the exhibition of character. He was emphatically 
a man of strong faith and earnest convictions. To these 
principles may be traced his idea of self-support, which 
he carried out completely to the last, and his purpose to 
be independent of any society. With a confidence sim- 
ilar to that of Miiller, as manifested in his "Life of 
Trust," he carried on his work in humble reliance upon 
Providence. And he met with success similar to that of 
Miiller. Means came to him often from totally unex- 
pected sources. He was thus enabled to carry on his 
work, providing for his own and his family's wants, 

[451 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

and at the same time made liberal benefactions to many 
needy causes ; and for some time while in Panama sup- 
ported, out of these providential means, a colpor- 
teur. His self-renunciation and consecration appear 
the more marked when it is recalled that he turned aside 
from lucrative positions that were offered to him, in 
which he could have acquired a considerable fortune 
had his motives been those of gain. 

Besides the church edifice which was erected by his 
instrumentality, the "Foreigners' Cemetery," a beau- 
tifully laid out burial place for foreigners dying in Pan- 
ama, was a work due to his plannings, superintendence, 
and labor. 

His services of sympathy, and Christian love, as 
well as his culture, made him a welcome and esteemed 
guest in the homes of the wealthy and cultivated. The 
most precious remembrance of him will be in connection 
with his Christlike labors in ministering to the sick, the 
suffering, and the poor. 

On January 8, 1869, he was married to Miss Mary 
Jane Waters, daughter of Hiram Waters of Benning- 
ton, Vermont. ; 

They had one son, Frederick Waters Hicks, who 
was described as having "marked characteristics, 
strongly resembling those of his father." The son fitted 
for college at Phillips Andover Academy and entered 
Williams with the class of 1891. Members of his class 
remember him as "a quiet, modest young man, of un- 
blemished character and correct conduct, interested but 
not notably prominent in religious work, fond of debat- 
ing and an active, earnest member of the Philotechnian 
Society." He read widely, and though caring little for 
rank in scholarship, he was a successful student. He 
had strong convictions and was outspoken in his opin- 
ions. While he was of a reserved disposition and did not 
make friends readily, those who really knew him loved 

[ 452 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

him. In the first term of his Senior year he was obliged 
to leave college for a time, returning in the spring and 
entering the class of 1892. He was, however, far from 
well and a second attack of appendicitis resulted in his 
death in July, 1891. 

Mrs. Hicks died at Bennington, June 3, 1909. 

Geokge Cook Raynolds was born in Longmeadow, 
Massachusetts, February 25, 1839, two days after the 
death of his father. He was the son of George and 
Mary (Cook) Raynolds. His grandparents were 
Samuel and Lucy (Pitkin) Raynolds, and Oliver and 
Miriam (Rockwell) Cook. His ancestry, which is a 
distinguished one, is traced, on the father's side, through 
Rev. Stephen, Rev. John, and Deacon Samuel Wil- 
liams to Robert Williams, who came from Norwich, 
England, and settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Rev. 
John Williams was captured by the French and In- 
dians at Deerfleld, in 1704, and carried to Canada. 
Eliazer Williams, supposed to be the lost Dauphin, was 
in the family of Rev. John Williams. Among other 
distinguished ancestors were Richard Mather, John 
Wareham, and John Davenport. 

Mr. Raynolds belongs to a missionary family. Of 
the decendants of his grandfather, Samuel Raynolds, 
ten have already engaged in missionary work. Mrs. 
William G. Schauffler, daughter of Samuel Raynolds, 
was the first single lady sent out by the American 
Board. Her son, Rev. Henry A. Schauffler, D.D. 
(Williams 1859), his son, William Gray Schauffler, 
M.D., and daughter, Mrs. Benjamin Labaree, have all 
been engaged in foreign missionary work. The eldest 
sister of the subject of this sketch, Emily Pitkin Ray- 
nolds, married Rev. Simeon Howard Calhoun, D.D. 
(Williams 1829), September 19, 1848, and labored 
more than forty years in the Syria Mission. Their son, 

[453 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

Charles William Calhoun (Williams 1873), was con- 
nected with the same mission and died June 23, 1883. 
Their daughter, Emily Raynolds Calhoun, married Dr. 
Galen Bancroft Danforth, December 25, 1871, and 
was connected with the same mission till the time of her 
death in 1881. Another daughter, Susan Howard Cal- 
houn, married Rev. Charles Newton Ransom (her 
cousin and another descendent of Samuel Raynolds), 
and is now connected with the Zulu Mission. 

The father of Mr. Raynolds was, by occupation, a 
house builder. He was a reliable citizen, an earnest 
Christian and interested in missions. After his death 
the widow returned to her home in East Windsor Hill, 
Connecticut. He was fitted for college at the acad- 
emy in that place. Here he was under the instruction 
of Paul A. Chadbourne, who was then principal of the 
academy, and subsequently president of Williams 
College. Probably it was due, in part, to Dr. Chad- 
bourne's influence that Raynolds chose Williams Col- 
lege, where he entered as Freshman in 1857. In col- 
lege he was a member and one of the presidents of the 
Mills Theological Society. He was one of the speak- 
ers at the Junior Exhibition, his subject being "The 
Trinity of Excellence," and at Commencement, when 
his subject was "The Monument an Educator." 

After graduation, he taught for a year at Mount 
Anthony Seminary, Bennington, Vermont. He then 
attended medical lectures in Pittsfleld for a time, and 
then studied in the medical department of New York 
University, where he was graduated in March, 1864, 
with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. The following 
month he was appointed acting assistant surgeon in 
the United States Navy, a position which he held till 
December, 1865. He was attached to the Otsego, in 
the fall of 1864, when Lieutenant Gushing blew up the 
Confederate ram Albemarle; was present at the cap- 

[454 ] 



Biog raph ical Sketch es 

ture of Plymouth, North Carolina, and, when the Ot- 
sego was sunk by torpedoes, was transferred to the 
Chenango, and joining the South Atlantic Squadron, 
he reached Charleston, South Carolina, the day after 
it was captured by the Union forces. 

On resigning from the Navy at the close of the war, 
lie received an appointment to King's County Hospital, 
Long Island. From here he went to Manchester, Ver- 
mont, and then to Chicago, where he remained from 
November, 1866, till July, 1869. 

From early years he had felt an interest in mission- 
ary work, having an aunt and sister on mission ground, 
and he now determined to devote his life to the regener- 
ation of the Orient. On September 11, 1869, under ap- 
pointment of the American Board, he, with his wife, 
sailed for the Eastern Turkey Mission, arriving at 
Harpoot November 26. Here he remained about two 
years and a half, devoting himself to the study of the 
Armenian and doing general missionary work, besides 
having the care, as physician, of four stations. In 1871, 
at the annual meeting of the mission he was ordained 
as a minister and appointed as one of those who should 
proceed to Van to open a new work there, and, from 
that time, he devoted himself more to educational and 
evangelistic work and less to medical practice. In 1872, 
Dr. and Mrs. Raynolds with Rev. H. S. Barnum from 
Harpoot, and Rev. Joseph E. Scott, a new missionary, 
established themselves at Van, a city of great interest 
because of its location and antiquity. It is the capital 
of the vilayet bearing that name and is situated at the 
converging point of the three empires of Russia, Persia, 
and Turkey, being about sixty miles from the frontier 
of Persia and about 100 miles from Russia. On ac- 
count of its proximity to these frontiers, Van is the place 
of residence of English, Russian and Persian consuls. 
The city is elevated 5500 feet above the level of the 

[ 455 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

sea, and from the summit of the old citadel Mt. Ararat, 
covered with eternal snow, is within sight. Van occu- 
pies the sight of a prehistoric city and many cuneiform 
inscriptions are found, cut in the living rock, containing 
records of races contemporary with Sennacherib and 
the Babylonian dynasty. At the time when the mission- 
aries established themselves there the city had a popula- 
tion of 35,000, about two-thirds of whom were nominal 
Christians. The work there was among the nominally 
Christian Armenian natives. The following extracts, 
giving some account of the city and its population, are 
from communications published in the Missionary Her- 
ald for 1875, the first extract being from a letter of Dr. 
Raynolds, and the second from the first annual report 
of the station. "The city is supposed to have been 
founded by Semiramis, as a summer resort from the 
heated plains of Babylon, and many inscriptions 
in the arrow-headed character still attest its ancient 
occupation. The situation of the city seems to have 
been determined by the existence of an isolated ledge 
of rock, near the southeastern corner of the lake. At 
present the walled city, while containing most of the 
shops, is the residence of but few of the inhabitants. 
The 'gardens' ( any place where trees are found is called 
a garden in this country) stretch away on two sides of 
the city to the distance of four or five miles, and it is 
here that most of the people reside, the men going daily 
to the city for their business." 

"In the city there is more general intelligence than 
in most interior cities. Most of the young men can 
read, and there are nine boys' and two girls' schools, 
with an aggregate, says the Bishop's scribe, of 2000 pu- 
pils. Very many of the men have been to Constanti- 
nople, and some few to France and Germany. This 
travel has liberalized them, but it may be doubted 
whether it has made them more hopeful subjects for the 

[ 456 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

gospel work. Several societies of young men exist, 
formed, avowedly, for intellectual improvement; and it 
is common to hear the members acknowledge that many 
foolish and superfluous rites have attached themselves 
to their religion, which it is their purpose, little by little, 
to cut away. Beyond this, however, their idea does not 
go." 

Such is the city where Dr. Raynolds, with an oc- 
casional visit to America or Europe, for relaxation, has 
labored with the greatest devotion and zeal for more 
than two score years. These labors have been both va- 
ried and abundant. To tell of preaching, teaching, 
practising medicine, giving medical lectures, distribut- 
ing copies of the Bible, superintending the erection of 
church and school buildings, caring for mission prem- 
ises, touring, ministering to the wants of the poor in 
famine and war, would be to enumerate but a part of 
the duties that fell to the lot of Dr. Raynolds. A re- 
view of the work at Van after a period of twenty-five 
years showed that while at the beginning of the mission 
the Bible was an almost unknown book, during twenty- 
five years there had been distributed more than 1000 
copies of the whole Bible, upward of 3000 copies of 
the New Testament, together with 4500 parts. The 
strong prejudice formerly existing against the mission- 
aries had been greatly weakened and in place of perse- 
cution had come congratulation. The Sabbath services 
were attended by audiences of 500, while more than 
500 pupils were receiving daily instruction in the 
schools. The fact that a missionary station exists at 
Van to-day must be attributed to the unswerving loy- 
alty and indomitable perseverance of Dr. Raynolds, who 
has nobly held to his post through all discouragement 
and change. Nor has this work been limited to Van. 
Schools are maintained in eighteen neighboring villages, 
and often the gospel has been preached on tours and 

[ 45? ] 



Williams College and Missions 

journeys made into distant regions. In the fall and 
winter of 1887-88, Dr. Raynolds made two such jour- 
neys to Persia and one to Russia, travelling over 900 
miles on horseback in an absence of seven weeks. 

If his abundant labors recall the doings of apos- 
tolic times, still more so do the perils through which he 
has passed, for he has been called to witness war, pesti- 
lence, famine, massacre, and to pass through persecution 
and dangers of all sorts. Some accounts of these trials 
are given in various volumes of the Missionary Herald. 
One of the most terrible of his experiences, as re- 
counted in the Herald for 1883, was his encounter with 
a Kurdish chief, by whom he was robbed and severely 
wounded, having a most narrow escape with his life. An 
interesting sequel of this assault occurred twenty years 
later when the Turkish Government gave Dr. Raynolds 
an indemnity for the attack, by means of which he was 
able to help people to erect the church they greatly 
needed, and which is sometimes spoken of as "The 
Church which the Kurds built." 

At the time of the massacres at Sassoon in 1884 and 
again in 1895, Dr. Raynolds rendered efficient service, 
spending several months, at the request of the British 
Ambassador, in distributing aid to the survivors. 

In consequence of the massacres that occurred in 
Van in 1896, he had a new field of service opened to 
him, some account of which is given in a letter of re- 
cent date. "The general massacres of 1895," writes Dr. 
Raynolds, "took place while I was in Sassoon, and in 
June of the following year, Van took its turn at mas- 
sacre experiences. In consequence of this, an orphan- 
age was opened here in the fall, which has continued 
till the present year [1911]. During these sixteen years 
nearly a thousand children have spent a longer or 
shorter time in the orphanage, a very fair proportion of 
whom have fully made good, several already taking 

[458] 



Biographical Six etches 

good positions as teachers, physicians, preachers, etc., 
much more than half are living fairly satisfactory lives, 
while but a small proportion have really done badly. 
The retrospect of these sixteen years of orphanage work 
affords me much satisfaction. But this has not been 
the only form of philanthropic work carried on during 
this period. For much of the time nearly or quite fam- 
ine conditions have prevailed and large sums of money 
have been sent for distribution to the suffering, several 
hundred thousand dollars having passed through our 
hands." 

Of the variety and importance of the work accom- 
plished by Dr. Raynolds and his wife, who has been his 
faithful and efficient helpmeet, we may get a completer 
idea from the following extract taken from a letter writ- 
ten to his home Board by Rev. Mr. Coan, who is a mis- 
sionary of the Presbyterian Board in Persia, and who 
in 1900 made a visit to Van. "It has been a great priv- 
ilege," writes Mr. Coan, "to see the wonderful work 
that is being carried on here by these two giants, Dr. 
Raynolds and his wife. Think of a man as at once sta- 
tion treasurer, distributing relief all over the plain, and 
keeping the accounts involved and sending the reports 
that are required, keeping up preaching services in 
two places, four miles apart, superintending the care 
of 500 orphans and 400 day pupils, the 500 not only 
cared for physically, but taught and so utilized as to 
in part pay their own expense. For example, there are 
trades taught, and half the day is given to trades and 
half to study. All the cloth used is woven by the chil- 
dren in the looms on the place, the skins of the oxen 
and sheep eaten are cured on the place, and boys make 
them up into shoes of three grades. Carpentering and 
blacksmithing are also done, and all the work needed on 
the place is done by the boys. All the food needed is 
prepared on the place, thus training up another corps 

[ 459 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

as bakers and cooks. So you have every day on the 
place, being taught how to live useful Christian lives, 
not far from 1000 children. Then add to all the above 
the medical work here, to which three afternoons are 
given, and you have at least a part of the duties of this 
couple. Alone, without associates, they have carried 
all these burdens until it is a wonder that they are not 
broken down." 

The following extract is from a letter written in 
1903 by Rev. Dr. J. L. Barton, one of the Secretaries 
of the American Board, and addressed to the secretary 
of the class of 1861: "In Manchester, Sunday after- 
noon, you asked me if I would write you about Dr. 
Raynolds, something in the line of which I spoke to 
you of him — I am very glad to do so. 

"We regard Dr. Raynolds as one of our strong, 
staunch missionaries in Turkey. He is a man of indom- 
itable energy, always up and at it, never discouraged 
and never defeated. 

"He went to Van, one of the most fanatical parts 
of our Eastern Turkey field, and within about two days' 
journey of the Persian border, in 1872, and opened the 
station. He met with endless opposition, but persist- 
ently held on, until during the last two or three years 
the whole community began to recognize his self-de- 
voted labors, and a very extensive work has been built 
up. Dr. Raynolds has built a monument for himself 
there in Van, which will abide when other monuments 
that have been erected in granite and marble have 
crumbled and been forgotten. . . . 

"We have few cases of more forget fulness of self, 
and an entire mergence of self-interest in the great work 
that has grown up on every side. Dr. Raynolds never 
seems to think of himself but of what he can do to help 
on the Kingdom in Turkey. 

"You can well imagine that such a man is a great 

[ 4.60 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

power. Mrs. Raynolds is in sympathy with him in all 
the work. We are willing to trust Dr. Raynolds with 
any sum of money to be expended in the work, hav- 
ing perfect confidence that it would be expended most 
wisely, and where it would do the largest and most 
permanent good." 

The small boys' school started by Dr. Raynolds 
forty years ago has grown into a high school, with over 
500 pupils in all its departments, and has recently 
(1913) taken the advance step into a college of which 
Dr. Raynolds is president. This is the tenth American 
college established by the American Board in Turkey. 
Such is the location of Van that it is the natural 
educational center for a wide extent of territory, 
not only in Eastern Turkey but in both Russia and 
Persia. 

The vilayet alone, of which Van is the capital, has 
a population of 380,000. The new college is to provide 
facilities for the higher education of a population of 
not less than 1,000,000, many of whom are Armenians, 
but the majority of whom are Turks or Kurds. Mos- 
lems join with the Armenians in making an urgent 
appeal for the new college, and various races unite in 
aiding its support. 

Rarely in the long period of their service have Dr. 
and Mrs. Raynolds visited their native land. In 1905- 
06, in order to restore his health, Dr. Raynolds made an 
extensive tour, in which he visited Harpoot, Sivas, Con- 
stantinople, and various places on the continent of Eu- 
rope and in England and Ireland. 

He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from 
his Alma Mater in 1914. 

Dr. Raynolds married August 31, 1869, Martha, 
daughter of Reuben and Almira (Wade) Tinker, of 
Lyme, Connecticut, and granddaughter of George and 
Martha (Mather) Wade. They have no children. 

[461 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

Dr. Raynolds' published writings are mostly con- 
tained in different volumes of the Missionary Herald. 



CLASS OF 1862 

Patrick Lynet Garden, son of John and Anne 
(Lynet) Garden, was born March 17, 1835 (?), in Bal- 
lina, County Mayo, Ireland. His father was a farmer. 
The son entered college as a Freshman in 1858. He 
was badly handicapped in college by a poor preparation, 
but by hard work, he overcame, to some extent, this 
disadvantage. While he was naturally rather dull, he 
became, when much roused, brilliant. Though he was 
not at all notably pious, he was moral and upright, a 
good fellow, and a person whom every one liked in a 
way. He was a member of the Mills Theological So- 
ciety, of which he was for a time vice-president. He 
was an eloquent speaker, and took the prize at the Jun- 
ior Moonlight Exhibition, when his performance was 
regarded as of unusual merit. He was one of the dis- 
putants at the Adelphic Union Exhibition, February 
26, 1862; and was Orator at the Adelphic Union Exhi- 
bition July 9, 1862. 

After graduation he entered the Union Army, be- 
coming a second lieutenant in a company of the 125th 
New York Regiment, of which company his classmate, 
Armstrong, was captain. He was made a prisoner 
of war at Harper's Ferry and being sent on parole to 
Camp Douglas in Chicago, he resigned his position in 
the army and entered the Theological Seminary of the 
Northwest. In speaking of the surrender at Harper's 
Ferry, Captain Armstrong wrote to the class secre- 
tary: "We proceeded then to Chicago via Annapolis, 
Baltimore, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We had an 
easy time in Chicago and a fine one. There Pat Garden, 
my second lieutenant, beat his sword into a plough- 

[462] 



Biographical Sketches 

share, removed the brass buttons from his coat and the 
welting-cord from his trousers, put on a long face and 
pretended to like the Hebrew Grammar." 

During the summer and spring of the first year of 
his seminary course, Carden was engaged by the Amer- 
ican Sunday-school Union to visit and establish Sab- 
bath-schools in the destitute districts of Fulton County, 
Illinois. He was graduated with honor from the sem- 
inaiy in 1865, in which year he was licensed to preach, 
married, and went as a missionary to Siam. Under 
date of June 26, 1882, he wrote to the class secre- 
tary: "After a few years' stay in that, to many, un- 
healthy climate, my wife's health broke completely 
down, and the doctor compelled us to return home. 
We came back by way of China and Japan. My next 
location was Manteno, Illinois, where I had charge of 
the Presbyterian Church for iive years. 

"Hemorrhage of the lungs, in the winter of 1876, 
forced me to take flight to the salubrious climate of Cal- 
ifornia, where, in the city of Marysville, I have been 
pastor of a good Presbyterian church now over five 
years. Every year during the summer vacation I go 
with my family into the Sierra Nevada Mountains, 
where we have fishing and hunting and all the health 
and pleasure of a wild mountain life. Last year I went 
to Buffalo as a delegate to the General Assembly of our 
Church, and extended my trip as far east as New York 
City. I was greatly in hopes I should have met in the 
metropolis some of the members of '62, but failed in 
my anticipation. 

"By this outline sketch you will perceive that my 
life has been, perhaps, the most varied of all our class- 
mates'. I have circumnavigated the globe, and seen 
much of the light and dark side in life throughout the 
world. 

"I have not yet reached the summit of fame, and I 

[463 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

am not sure that I have, or ever will, come even to the 
base of that much-coveted eminence. However, I have 
had tolerable success, and am blessed with one of the 
chief est of earthly joys, a happy family. We have six 
children. One is in heaven, and five (two boys) are yet 
with us, happy and strong." 

He remained nine years at Marysville, after which 
he spent one year at Dixon, and then settled at 
Red Bluff, California, where he died November 8, 
1890. 

He was married in Chicago, August 29, 1865, to 
Hannah Caroline, daughter of Dr. William G. and 
Georgiana L. (Keating) Dyas, granddaughter of Dr. 
William and Anne (Place) Dyas and of Rev. George 
and Jane (Little) Keating. She with five children 
survived him. Of six children born to them four are 
now living: Godfrey Lynet Garden, who is captain in 
the United States Revenue Cutter Service; Harry 
Blythe Pickens, a banker; Alice Campbell; and Geor- 
giana Caroline. Mrs. Carden resides in Marysville, 
California. 

Henry Thomas Perry was born in Ashfleld, Mas- 
sachusetts, May 6, 1838. He was the son of Alvan and 
Sarah Anne (Sanderson) Perry, and grandson of John 
and Eunice ( Cooledge) Perry and of Chester and Anna 
(Allis) Sanderson. His immigrant ancestors were all 
English who came west to Ashfleld and Whately, 
Massachusetts, when those towns were organized. All 
of Mr. Perry's ancestors were men and women of in- 
tegrity, truth, righteousness, and public spirit. Mr. 
Perry's father was a merchant, and for twelve years 
was Inspector of Customs at Boston. He was an 
eminently religious man, who diligently studied and be- 
lieved God's Word. He was a deacon of the Congre- 
gational Church in Ashfleld, and, at one time, of the 

[464 ] 






Biographical Sketches 

Old South Church, Boston, at Chambers Street 
Chapel. 

Mr. Perry prepared for college in the Sanderson 
Academy, Ashfield, and in the Williston Seminary, 
Easthampton, Massachusetts. He entered college in 
1858, becoming a member of a class that had an unusual 
number of members who became distinguished. Among 
his classmates were General Samuel Chapman Arm- 
strong, President Franklin Carter, Dr. John Henry 
Denison, Dean Edward Herrick Griffin, Professor 
George Lansing Raymond, and Chancellor Francis 
Huntington Snow. In college he was a member of the 
Mills Theological Society; the Anti- Secret Confedera- 
tion; the Philologian Society; and of the Lyceum of 
Natural History. In his Senior year he was Jackson 
Orator, and was one of the speakers at the Adelphic 
Union Exhibition, July 9, 1862. He was for a time 
librarian and treasurer of the Franklin Library. He 
was one of the speakers at Commencement, his appoint- 
ment being an Oration, and the subject of his address 
"Picket Duty." 

After graduation he entered Auburn Theological 
Seminary, where he was graduated in 1865. In Decem- 
ber of the same year he was ordained, Dr. Mark Hop- 
kins giving the "charge." He spent one year in home 
missionary work in Rolla, Missouri, and in November, 
1866, under appointment of the American Board, 
sailed from Boston, with his wife, for Central Turkey, 
arriving at Aintab January 11, 1867. He remained 
in that field for seven years, when he returned to this 
country for a brief visit, in 1873-74, and again two years 
later. He was then transferred to the Western Turkey 
Mission, and sailed for his new home in September, 
1876, reaching Sivas October 30. Mr. Perry taught 
homiletics and pastoral theology fixe years in the theo- 
logical seminary at Marash, but was compelled by the 

[465 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

malarial climate of that region to remove to the cooler 
uplands of Asia Minor. He has devoted forty-six years 
of his life to efficient field and educational service for 
mission churches. A good idea of the extent, variety, 
and success of his missionary labors may be obtained 
from his numerous communications published in the 
Missionary Herald, telling as they do of the establish- 
ment of churches, schools, and asylums, of preaching 
and teaching, of increasing religous interest, of visiting 
out-stations and of touring among remote villages. 

In 1900, Mr. Perry wrote of Sivas and its needs: 
"In Sivas we are in the center of a large and populous 
province. Taken in connection with the two colleges 
at Aintab and Marsovan (one on each side of us), to 
which we send annually our graduates, we hold an un- 
questioned leadership in education. Not to mention 
now the fundamental character of our thorough in- 
struction in Biblical studies, in the linguistic and scien- 
tific lines no schools except that under the special 
endowment of the Turkish Government even undertake 
to rival us. There are now on duty six teachers hav- 
ing in charge 265 pupils, of whom only ten are boarders. 
The reason why there are no more boarding pupils is 
that we cannot receive them, since we have no room for 
a boarding department." 

The most important, perhaps, of Mr. Perry's mis- 
sionary services was the founding of the normal school 
at Sivas for the purpose of educating native teachers 
and missionaries. The school has now over 1000 resi- 
dent pupils. Tributary to this school is a system of 
primary schools which were organized by Mr. Perry 
throughout Pontus, these schools being managed from 
the normal school and taught chiefly by its graduates. 
In the generation of its existence, the normal school has 
trained many leaders of thought, graduating as it has 
many ministers, lawyers, doctors, and teachers. To its 

[466] 



Biog raph ical She tch es 

influence in thus training leading minds and its advo- 
cacy of civic freedom and religious tolerance the reform 
movement in Turkey owes much. Of scarcely inferior 
importance are the services rendered by Mr. Perry at 
the time of the Armenian massacres when thousands of 
his parishioners were massacred, when he raised funds 
for the founding of an asylum for orphans, more than 
800 of whom were received and cared for. A part of 
this scheme was the establishing of trade schools in which 
the orphans were taught and rendered self-supporting. 

Mr. Perry received the degree of Master of Arts in 
course from his Alma Mater, in 1865, and at the cele- 
bration of the fiftieth anniversary of his graduation, 
in 1912, he was honored with the degree of Doctor of 
Divinity. 

Mr. Perry was married in Rolla, Missouri, Septem- 
ber 19, 1866, to Jeanne EL, adopted daughter of Rev. 
Williston and Elizabeth (Shearer) Jones. She was 
born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and was educated at the 
Iowa State Normal School and Oxford Female Sem- 
inary, Ohio. She died at Sivas, Turkey, May 3, 1884. 
The Missionary Herald of that year contains an ap- 
preciative memorial of her life and character. Mr. 
Perry was married again, December 9, 1891, to Mary 
Ellen Hartwell, daughter of Edmund and Eliza 
(Tyler) Hartwell, and descendant of William Hart- 
well, who came from Kent, England, in 1636, and 
settled in Lexington, Massachusetts. Before her mar- 
riage, Mrs. Perry was connected with the Presbyterian 
Mission at Siam. She is spoken of as a person of rare 
excellence of character, and one who has been espe- 
cially helpful both to her husband and in the mission 
service. 

Of seven children born to Mr. Perry by the first 
marriage, five daughters died before their mother. A 
son and daughter are living: Alvan Williston Perry, 

[ 467 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

broker and dealer in real estate, New York City; and 
Miss Jeanne Hannah Perry, a graduate of Smith Col- 
lege in the class of 1909, a teacher of botany and biol- 
ogy in the Wolcott School, Denver, Colorado. 

Dr. and Mrs. Perry are at present (1914) in this 
country. 

CLASS OF 1863 

Alexander Moss Merwin was born September 3, 
1839, in Norwalk, Connecticut, on the farm and in the 
house where his great-grandfather, coming from Wales, 
settled in 1645. He was the son of Timothy Taylor and 
Hannah Bartow (White) Merwin, of Danbury, Con- 
necticut, and grandson of Rev. Samuel Merwin of Mil- 
ford, Connecticut, and Clarina Bradley Taylor and of 
Ephraim Moss White of Danbury, and of Charity 
Tucker, who was of Dutch descent. Mr. Merwin traced 
his descent through his father from Miles Merwin, who 
came from Milford, Wales, in 1645, and died at Mil- 
ford, Connecticut, in 1697. Descendants of Miles Mer- 
win still live in Milford and New Milford. Through 
his mother, Mr. Merwin was descended from Thomas 
White, who came from Weymouth, England, to Wey- 
mouth, Massachusetts, and was made a "freeman" in 
1635. 

An ancestor on the mother's side was Joseph Moss 
(Harvard 1699), who received from Yale, in 1702, the 
honorary degree of Master of Arts, and was one of the 
Fellows and early benefactors of Yale. The grand- 
father, Rev. Samuel Merwin of Milford, was graduated 
at Yale in 1802, and the father, Timothy Taylor Mer- 
win, was graduated at Yale in 1827. Timothy Taylor 
Merwin had a brother, Samuel John Mills Merwin, who 
was graduated at Yale in 1839. He also had five sis- 
ters, all of whom married graduates of colleges, and 
four of them married ministers, one of whom was Rev. 

[468] 



Biographical Sketch es 

Gordon Hall, son of the missionary. Four of these five 
husbands were graduates of Yale. 

Rev. Samuel Merwin, the grandfather of Alexander 
Moss Merwin, in 1805 became pastor of the United 
Society (later occupying the North Church) in New 
Haven, Connecticut. This pastorate continued for 
more than a quarter of a century. Dexter ("Biograph- 
ical Sketches") says of him: "Mr. Merwin was a man 
of a remarkably meek, gentle, and patient spirit; nota- 
bly gifted in prayer, but considered a dull preacher. 
He is commemorated by a tablet in the present United 
Church and by a portrait in their Chapel." 

Alexander Moss Merwin fitted for college at Burr 
and Burton Seminary, Manchester, Vermont. He en- 
tered college with the class of 1862 and remained with 
that class nearly through the Sophomore year, when he 
left college. After an absence of some time he returned 
to college, entering the class of 1863. In college he was 
a member of the Equitable Fraternity; of the Philo- 
logian Society; of the Lyceum of Natural History; of 
the Williams Art Association; and of the Mills Society, 
of which he was treasurer in Junior year and the pres- 
ident the first term of Senior year. 

He received the appointment of an Oration, and 
was one of the speakers at Commencement, his subject 
being "Stoicism." 

After graduation, he entered Princeton Theological 
Seminary and, after completing the course there, was 
ordained by the Presbytery of North River, June 14, 
1866, and the same year went as a missionary, under ap- 
pointment of the Presbyterian Board, to Valparaiso, 
Chili. For a time he took part in the Spanish evangel- 
ical work just started in Santiago, and then, in 1868, 
settled in Valparaiso and gathered the first Protestant 
congregation there, preaching the first Protestant ser- 
mon in Spanish ever preached in Valparaiso. The con- 

[ 469 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

gregation, which at first consisted of not more than 
twelve regular attendants, after fifteen years numbered 
nearly 300, 140 of whom were communicants. The 
church which he then founded there is still under the 
care of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. 

He also established a school and home for orphan 
children, and for many years edited a Spanish period- 
ical, La Alianza Evanjelica. The school, home, and 
paper are still flourishing under the care of the mission 
workers. After nineteen years of successful work in 
Chili, on account of failing health of himself and family, 
he moved, in 1886, to Santa Barbara, California, and 
a year later to Pasadena. For a year or so after taking 
up his residence in Pasadena, he was occupied in or- 
ganizing three churches for English-speaking people, 
and then became missionary among the Spanish-speak- 
ing residents of Pasadena and vicinity, and later was 
superintendent of an important work among the so- 
called Mexicans in Southern California, who numbered 
about 45,000. For seventeen years he was thus under 
the care of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, 
and these years were full of labors for the Spanish- 
speaking residents of California. 

He died of pneumonia in Pasadena, February 2, 
1905. At the time of his death a local paper said: "It 
is doubtful if the loss of any other man would have stir- 
red the community to more heartfelt sorrow. He was 
active not only in his chosen profession, but in various 
directions in which men of force and ability must find 
vent for their energies ; and he brought into every rela- 
tion of life innate qualities of head and heart that en- 
deared him to all who knew him." 

Mr. Merwin received the honorary degree of Master 
of Arts from Yale College in 1880, having taken the 
same degree in course from Williams in 1866. He was 
for many years president of the South Pasadena Public 

[470] 



Biographical Sketches 

Library, and also for six years of the Twilight Club of 
Pasadena. He was also chaplain of the Society of 
Colonial Wars, and a member of the Society of the 
Sons of the Revolution and of the Society of Colonial 
Governors. 

While in college and the seminary he served for a 
time as a substitute for chaplains Hopkins and Roe at 
Alexandria and Fortress Munroe hospitals ; he also took 
part in the field work of the Christian and Sanitary 
Commissions at different times. 

Mr. Merwin was married October 3, 1866, in Man- 
chester, Vermont, to Elizabeth, daughter of William A. 
and Mary J. (Putnam) Burnham, and granddaughter 
of Jesse and Elizabeth Putnam. 

Of five children born of this marriage, two are liv- 
ing: Mary Amelia Merwin, missionary in Mexican 
work, and William Burnham Merwin, a broker in Los 
Angeles, California. Mrs. Merwin resides in Pasa- 
dena, California. 

Samuel Swain Mitchell, son of Matthew and 
Susan (Swain) Mitchell, both of Nantucket families, 
was born at Hudson, New York, September 8, 1840. 
He pursued his preparatory studies at different 
schools, but the school from which he went directly to 
college was a private one kept by Rev. Mr. Bradbury, 
at Hudson. He entered college as a Freshman in 
1859. The class to which he belonged was one of the 
larger ones of that period and had several members 
who became distinguished. In college, he was a mem- 
ber of the Philologian Literary Society; the Williams 
Art Association; Williams Quartette Society; Lyceum 
of Natural History; Mills Theological Society. He 
was a disputant in the Adelphic Union Debate, March, 
1863; was Toastmaster at the Biennial Celebration of 
the class; a member of the Committee on Songs, Class 

[471] 



Williams College and Missions 

Day; and during Senior year he was one of the editors 
of the Williams Quarterly. 

The following extract is from a letter written to the 
class secretary and published in the report that was is- 
sued twenty years after graduation: "My course since 
leaving college has been somewhat as follows: Studied 
theology one year at Auburn and two years at Union 
Seminary, New York; served in the Christian Commis- 
sion; was or attempted to be a missionary of A. B. C. 
F. M. in Syria, but returned after one year on finding 
myself unable to endure the climate and work; took 
a church in Wisconsin ; taken down with western fever ; 
for two months seriously ill ; on partial recovery went to 
Germany ; spent four years, dividing my time between 
Tubingen and Leipsic and travelling, choosing by pref- 
erence the high mountain Alpine regions. My time 
during this German period was occupied with desultory 
study, with an emphatic leaning to the Semitic lan- 
guages and history tinged with a flavoring of modern 
philosophy, diversified by occasional indulgence in the 
delights of poetry and general literature, as well as ren- 
dered more varied by assiduous cultivation of vocal and 
instrumental music." Finding the climate of North 
Germany prejudicial to his wife's health, he removed 
in the spring of 1875 to Rome, where he devoted him- 
self to the career of an artist, becoming a portrait, 
landscape, genre, and architectural painter. He lived 
abroad the most of the time, the later years of his life 
being spent in Spain. 

The following is the conclusion of a letter addressed 
by Mr. Mitchell to the secretary of his class and pub- 
lished in the "Fortieth Year Report." "I have re- 
ceived no academic honors or degrees, belonged to no 
clubs, held no official positions. I have published no 
books or pamphlets, with the exception of a series of 
letters, occasionally, in the New York Times, reviewing 

[472] 



Biographical Sketches 

the archaeological publications of Germany and Italy. 
My long sojourn in foreign countries has brought with 
it a knowledge of various modern languages, and as 
far as my leisure would permit, aside from my 
painting, I have been able to occupy myself to some 
extent, although not exhaustively, with the literary pro- 
ductions of the various countries. At present I am liv- 
ing in Spain, interested in the language of the country, 
and happen to have just concluded the first volume of 
'Don Quixote.' The language is difficult and the pro- 
nunciation especially so. With regard to my artistic 
work, the field of art is so broad and mastery of all its 
branches being an impossibility, I have for some time 
occupied myself mainly in studying and copying the 
architectural monuments of the various countries I have 
been in, e.g., the temples of Egypt, and the Greek tem- 
ples in Southern Italy; namely, those in Pgestum, near 
Xaples, and Girgenti, in Sicily. I have been occupied 
more recently with the cathedrals of Italy, Germany, 
France, and, at present, with those of Spain. 

"During the short time that I have been in the coun- 
try, I have copied the facade of the magnificent cathe- 
dral at Burgos, in Northen Spain, and am at present 
working in the cloister of San Juan de los Reyes, at 
Toledo, one of the glories of the Gothic architecture of 
Spain. I am more and more impressed by the inex- 
haustible treasures in art and literature which the 
ancient civilizations of the world afford, and am alter- 
nately spurred on by the inspiring influences which 
surround me, and depressed by a sense of the utter in- 
adequacy of my efforts." 

The preceding extracts, which have given an outline 
of Mr. Mitchell's life, may be supplemented by the fol- 
lowing dates: — he was ordained by the Presbytery at 
Newark, Xew Jersey, October 3, 1866; was a foreign 
missionary under appointment of the American Board, 

[473] 



Williams College and Missions 

at Abeih, Syria, 1866-68; stated supply at Jefferson, 
Wisconsin, 1869-70; resided in Germany 1870-74; an 
artist at Newton Centre, Massachusetts, 1875; artist 
in Europe and United States, 1876-1904. 

On returning to this country in 1904, Mr. Mitchell 
was taken sick on the steamer, and died at a hospital 
in New York, on December 7, of that year. 

He was married April 3, 1867, at Poughkeepsie, 
New York, to Miss Lucy Myers Wright, daughter of 
Rev. Austin Hazen Wright, M.D. (Dartmouth 1830), 
and Mrs. Catharine (Myers) Wright, missionaries 
at Urumia, Persia. Dr. Wright had a long period 
of useful service as a missionary in Persia, where his 
labors were those of a preacher, physician, and trans- 
lator. He was eminent also as a linguist, having a 
perfect acquaintance with the Turkish, Syriac, and 
Persian languages. Mrs. Mitchell, the daughter, was a 
lady of superior talents and of fine literary and artistic 
tastes. In 1883, she published a work of great merit 
on the "History of Ancient Sculpture," also a series 
of articles on Greek Sculpture in the Century Maga- 
zine. She died March 10, 1888. They had no 
children. 

Professor John Henry Wright (Dartmouth 1873), 
formerly Professor of Greek and Dean of the Graduate 
School in Harvard University, was her brother. 

Alfred Otis Treat, fourth son of Rev. Selah Burr 
and Abigail (Peters) Treat, and grandson of Selah 
and Anna (Williams) Treat, was born at Newark, 
New Jersey, February 28, 1840. The father was 
graduated at Yale in the class of 1824, studied law and 
practiced it as a profession for seven years, and then 
studied theology at Andover. He was for four years 
pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church at Newark, 
New Jersey, and then, compelled by ill health to leave 

[474] 



Biographical Sketches 

that position, he became associate editor with Dr. Ab- 
salom Peters, of the Biblical Repository and American 
Eclectic. In 1843, he took editorial charge of the 
Missionary Herald and the Youth's Day spring, and 
in 1847, was elected one of the Corresponding Secre- 
taries of the American Board. It was in this position 
that he performed his most important life-work, being 
connected with the Board for thirty- four years. At 
the time of his death in 1877, the Prudential Commit- 
tee passed a Minute, from which the following extract 
is taken: "His practical wisdom, sound judgment, 
and well-balanced character secured him not only the 
highest respect and esteem in the more immediate 
sphere of his labors, but made him the trusted friend 
and counselor of many in other walks of life. Modest 
and unassuming in manner, it was only those who 
knew him best that most fully appreciated his wide his- 
torical knowledge, Ins fund of illustrative anecdote, 
and the soundness and accuracy of his judgment." A 
striking illustration of his remarkable modesty was 
given when he declined the honor of the degree of Doc- 
tor of Divinity which had been conferred on him by 
Rutgers College. He married a daughter of Judge 
Peters, of Hartford, with whom he had studied law for 
a time. 

The son fitted for college at the Boston Latin 
School, and, with a younger brother, entered college 
as a Freshman in the fall of 1859. He was spoken of 
by his classmates and friends as quiet and unassuming 
in demeanor, and kind in disposition. Pie engaged in 
various college activities. He was a member of the 
Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity; of the Philotechnian So- 
ciety, in which, at different times, he held the offices of 
vice-president, secretary, and library committee; he 
also belonged to the Lyceum of Natural History; to 
the Glee Club; Williams Quartette; the Thespian So- 

[475] 



Williams College and Missions 

ciety, in which he was at different times president, sec- 
retary, and treasurer; he was also a director in the 
Reading Room Association, and was Prophet at the 
Class Day Exercises. 

Among his classmates were several who became em- 
inent in after life. Of these may be named John 
G. Davenport, Samuel W. Dike, Addison P. Foster, 
James C. Foye, A. Lawrence Hopkins, Daniel Mer- 
riam, John B. Morley, Henry D. Nicoll, Leverett W. 
Spring. 

After leaving college, he studied medicine in the 
Belle vue Hospital Medical College, New York City, 
at which he was graduated in 1866. 

For a short time during the Civil War he was As- 
sistant Surgeon in the Third New York Volunteer Cav- 
alry. After leaving the medical school he had some 
medical service in the New York Hospital and spent 
some time, also, in the study of theology. On Sep- 
tember 21, 1867, he sailed from New York for Shang- 
hai, under the auspices of the American Board, to join 
the North China Mission as a missionary physician. 
He reached Shanghai November 14, and Peking De- 
cember 6, seventy-six days from New York. His first 
letter home spoke of the "great joy and thankfulness" 
with which he took his place among the missionary la- 
borers in Peking. Hon. S. Wells Williams wrote con- 
cerning Dr. Treat, to his father: "I congratulate you 
on having a son who is so willing to carry out your own 
views, and seems likely to enter into the work with 
faith and patience. He has an open door for useful- 
ness among the sick and sinful in this region, and our 
best wishes for long service in the vineyard. It is a 
warning note to me, of the drawing nigh of the eventide 
of life, to see one of the boys who, in 1845, was around 
your table in Tremont Street, thinking chiefly of hard 
lessons contrasted with jolly play, coming suddenly to 

[ 476 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

view as a co-worker in mission plans, in the far-off city. 
I hope the churches in the United States will send hun- 
dreds of their best youths, to elevate the Chinese to be 
the true 'Celestials' in Christ Jesus. " 

Dr. Treat was sent out for a term of five years, but 
remained six years and a half, doing most faithful serv- 
ice. He was stationed for a time at Peking and also 
at Tientsin. In 1870 he with Rev. Chauncey Good- 
rich (Williams 1861), who had been a college mate for 
two years, and Rev. Isaac Pierson (Yale 1866), opened 
up a new station at Yu Chou, 120 miles west of Peking. 
Dr. Treat and Mr. Goodrich had previously made a 
tentative visit to this place and had been cheered by the 
marked intelligence of the natives to investigate the 
doctrine the missionaries came to tell them; while peo- 
ple came not only from various sections of the city, but 
from towns and villages at considerable distance to ob- 
tain medicine and avail themselves of Dr. Treat's med- 
ical skill. During the five weeks of this preliminary 
visit, about 250 cases came under Dr. Treat's medical 
care. In a few months a church nearly as large as that 
at Tientsin was organized, a dispensary was opened 
and a training school for helpers started. In the midst 
of these abundant labors, in which he was meeting with 
great success, he was constrained by ill health, in 1874, 
to return to this country, and to his father's home, but 
with the hope of returning to his work in China, in 
which he had become greatly interested. The follow- 
ing extract is taken from the "Fortieth Year Report" 
of his class: "However, before his complete recovery 
his mother's health failed, and not long after his father 
died, and his duty was plainly indicated. He devoted 
time and strength, the latter not fully regained, to the 
care of his invalid mother. His own health was never 
reestablished. By 1880 he was rapidly declining. In 
May of that year he went to the Adirondack plateau, 

[ 477 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

but in June, after a short row upon the lake at Lucerne, 
New York, he was seized with a hemmorhage of the 
lungs, and died the next morning, June 20, 1880. 'So 
his life,' writes his brother and classmate, Charles, 'was 
spent, though prematurely, as it seemed to our vision, 
yet brightly and beautifully. He said little, but acted 
well his part, and when the end came it found him 
ready and glad to go.' He never married." 

Dr. Treat had various letters published in the Mis- 
sionary Herald, for which he also wrote a series of sci- 
entific and illustrated papers on "The Great Wall of 
China"; "The Altar to Heaven"; "Japan"; "Peking"; 
and "The Tung-Chou Pagoda." 



CLASS OF 1864 

Alpheus Newell Andrus, son of Roderick Clark 
and Fanny Roxana (Upson) Andrus, was born in 
New York City, July 17, 1843. The immigrant an- 
cestors of Mr. Andrus came from Scotland and settled 
in Connecticut. His father was a merchant. His par- 
ents were industrious, economical, eminently pious, 
faithful workers in the church, and generous givers to 
the cause of Christ. The circumstances and influence 
of the home life were peculiarly pleasant and happy. 
While the family means were moderate, the tastes of 
the members of the household were intellectual. The 
training and influences of the home life were promotive 
of the best virtues, — spirituality, cheerfulness, regular- 
ity, orderliness, neatness, helpfulness of others, and 
loyalty to duty in all things. 

Mr. Andrus fitted for college at College Hill (now 
Riverview) Academy, Poughkeepsie, New York, and 
entered college as a Freshman in 1860. Among his 
classmates were Henry M. Booth, Timothy J. Darling, 
Francis T. Ingalls, Charles C. Tracy, John L. R. 

[ 478 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

Trask. During his college course he often engaged in 
teaching. He also engaged in a variety of college ac- 
tivities. He was a member of the Mills Theological 
Society, of which he was for a time recording secre- 
tary; of the Philologian Society, for which he was one 
of the disputants in the Adelphic Union Debate Oc- 
tober 21, 1863; he was one of the speakers at the Prize 
Rhetorical Exhibition August 5, 1862; he was for a 
time secretary and treasurer and one of the directors 
of the Athletic Baseball Club; one of the standing com- 
mittee of the Rip-Raps Baseball Club; and a member 
of the Committee of Arrangements for Class Day. 
He was a successful student and was one of the speak- 
ers at Commencement, the subject of his oration being 
"National Eloquence." On graduation he entered 
Union Theological Seminary, from which he was grad- 
uated in 1867, after which he remained in the seminary 
six months pursuing post-graduate studies. 

On April 25, 1868, he with his wife sailed from 
New York, under appointment of the American Board, 
to join the mission to Eastern Turkey. He landed in 
Constantinople, May, 1868, reached Harpoot in June, 
and Mardin, the station to which he was assigned, No- 
vember 20. At that time Mardin was the southernmost 
station of the mission. It is one of the chief cities in 
the province of Kurdistan, in Asiatic Turkey, and is 
built high up on the southern and eastern slopes of one 
of the highest peaks of the Ante- Taurus range of moun- 
tains that forms the northern boundary of Mesopota- 
mia. It is uncertain when or by whom the city was 
founded. Tradition relates that in the latter part of 
the fourteenth century it successfully resisted for three 
years, the repeated attacks of Tamerlane. The fol- 
lowing description of the city is given by Mr. Andrus: 
"The city, as at present located, is 1600 feet above the 
vast plains of Mesopotamia, which srtretch out, with an 

[479] 



Williams College and Missions 

almost unbroken level, to the southeast, south, and 
southwest. The houses are for the most part built in 
terraces one above another, so that the roof of one forms 
the yard to that which is above it. The city is not very 
broad, yet the hill is so steep that not infrequently snow 
will fall in the upper portions while it is raining in the 
lower wards. Although so lifted up above the plains, 
yet in the summer the city suffers from its nearness to 
them. They are very hot through the day, but in the 
night there is usually a cool breeze blowing over them. 
The heated air rises and is driven against these moun- 
tain slopes upon which the city rests. The result of 
this is a tendency to uniformity of temperature day and 
night." It is spoken of as a healthy place with no 
malaria. The population of the city in 1875 was some- 
thing over 16,000, distributed among a half dozen dif- 
ferent sects. The language of the city is chiefly Arabic, 
though Kurdish and Turkish are used in some trans- 
actions. About a year before the arrival of Mr. Andrus 
a church of nineteen members was organized upon a 
self-supporting basis, and a school established. In the 
spring of 1869 a theological class was formed under the 
tuition of Mr. Andrus and two associates. Shortly 
after this he was left in sole charge of the field and the 
Theological Seminary. His work of an educational 
and evangelical nature took him often to out-stations 
and more distant towns. In the Missionary Herald for 
1870 is an account of his visit to Sert, where there was a 
church standing "alone in the midst of surrounding 
darkness," and where he had a most cordial welcome. 
Two years later he made a tour of much interest to 
Diarbekir, and thence to Kedwan and other places in the 
Kurdish mountain portion of the field, one object of the 
tour being to look into the wants of the Arabic speak- 
ing villages dependent on Sert. The Missionary Her- 
ald for 1877 contains an interesting communication 

[ 480 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

from Mr. Andrus entitled "The Missing Link," which 
was really an appeal for the establishment of a mission 
station at Bagdad. Somewhat later he spent a winter 
in making extended observations in Mosul and Bag- 
dad. The "long and able report" which he gave to the 
mission of the missionary efforts at Bagdad led the 
Prudential Committee of the Board to seek for two men 
to send to that field. The annual report for 1879 
spoke of the evangelical work in three villages in the 
neighborhood of Midyat, and of the addition in those 
villages of 700 to the number of Protestant souls, while 
seven other villages asked for missionaries. In 1892, 
Mr. Andrus reports an extended visit to a district 
called Sherwan, lying east of Sert, a region heretofore 
unexplored by our missionaries. This journey cov- 
ered more than 500 miles and occupied forty-two days. 
In 1894 he writes from Midyat: "Last year I was 
away 246 days out of 365 and travelled on horseback 
1395 miles. This year so far I have been at home just 
ten days, and am now on a tour through this mountain 
and then on to Sert." To aid him in his work among 
the people of these regions, he commenced, about this 
time, a transliteration into Arabo-Kurdish of the 
Armeno-Kurdish Gospel of Matthew. In 1896 Mr. 
Andrus had much to do with the general relief work 
among those who had suffered from the massacres, as 
many as 20,000 people being thus aided. In Septem- 
ber of this year there was opened at Mardin an orphan- 
age, with which Mr. Andrus had much to do. In the 
first two years this institution cared for over 100 or- 
phans who had been carefully selected from thirty-four 
places. 

It will be seen that while Mr. Andrus' labors have 
been multifarious, they have been largely evangelical 
and educational. In his forty-six years of service, he 
has seen the establishment in his field of numerous 

[481] 



Williams College and Missions 

churches and schools of various grades, and both 
churches and schools have been generally prosperous. 
On the occasion of the celebration of the twenty-fifth 
anniversary of the first evangelical church at Mardin 
in 1893, there was reported a membership of over 200, 
a Sabbath-school of about the same number, a congre- 
gation of 500, while the gifts for educational and reli- 
gious purposes for twenty-five years amounted to over 
$13,000. 

Of especial importance also has been Mr. Andrus' 
work in connection with the Theological Seminary at 
Mardin. For the years 1875-87 he was chiefly engaged 
in giving instruction in this institution in Biblical in- 
terpretation, evidences of Christianity, and systematic 
theology. Students from this seminary have gone forth 
to occupy prominent positions and to exert a strong 
religious influence in various parts of the Turkish 
Empire. 

Mr. Andrus has also written much for the Mission- 
ary Herald, and by his letters and illuminating articles 
has done much to enlighten the American churches as 
to affairs in Turkey. Worthy of mention here are his 
papers on "Oppression in Turkey," "Concerning the 
Yezidees," and "Impressions from a Missionary Ex- 
perience of Twenty-five Years." 

In his long period of service, Mr. Andrus has al- 
ways manifested a spirit of wise aggressiveness, while 
his sound judgment and courage in the face of difficul- 
ties and dangers have made him a most valued mem- 
ber of the mission. 

As he has already passed the age of three score and 
ten years and looks back upon nearly a half-century of 
work at Mardin, he stands forth as one of the veterans 
of the whole missionary corps. A missionary class- 
mate says of him that he has done "the bravest of work 
in the hardest of fields." Still able to do efficient work, 

[482] 







George Cook Raynolds 
Chauneey Goodrich 
Charles Chapin Tracy 



Alpheus Newell Andrus 
Henry Thomas Perry 
George Thomas Washburn 



MISSIONARIES NOW LIVING (1914) WHOSE TERMS OF SERVICE IN EACH 
CASE EXCEED FORTY YEARS 



Biographical Sketches 

he is an illustration of the Old Testament blessing, 
"They shall still bring forth fruit in old age." 

In the period of his service he has visited the 
United States three times, 1874, 1887, and 1900. 

The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred 
upon him in absentia by his Alma Mater in 1914. 

He was married in Jewett, Greene County, New 
York, March 26, 1868, to Miss Louisa Morse, daugh- 
ter of Justin and Luna Morse. She died December 
29, 1873. He was married, secondly, in Toledo, Ohio, 
September, 1875, to Miss Olive L. Parmalee, a mis- 
sionary teacher at Mardin, daughter of William and 
Laura Parmalee. 

Of four children born to him, two are living and 
reside in New York City: Miss Harriet L. An- 
drus, a deaconess, and Miss Clara Morse Andrus, a 
stenographer. 

Mr. Andrus has aided in the preparation and 
printing of an Armeno- Kurdish Hymn-book, and 
the translation and transliteration of the Gospel of 
Matthew from the Armeno- Kurdish to the Arabo- 
Kurdish. 

Chaeles Chapin Teacy, son of Orramel and Cyn- 
thia (Kellogg) Tracy, and grandson of Nehemiah and 
Lucy (Olmsted) Tracy and of Samuel and Sarah 
(Rogers) Kellogg, was born in East Smithfield, Brad- 
ford County, Pennsylvania, October 31, 1838. His 
grandfather Tracy was born in East Haddam, Con- 
necticut, and his grandfather Kellogg and his mother 
were born in Vermont. The Tracy family is descended 
from Lieutenant Thomas Tracy, who emigrated from 
England and settled in Norwich, Connecticut, in 1660. 
The ancestors of Thomas Tracy, the de Tracys of Tod- 
dington, England, lived on the same estate 700 years. 
Sir William de Tracy married Godiva, granddaughter 

[483 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

of King Alfred. There were numerous knights in the 
family. 

Charles Chapin Tracy is a relative of the mission- 
ary, Rev. William Tracy, D.D., who was sometime a 
member of the class of 1833 at Williams, and who had 
three sons graduate here, two in the class of 1866, and 
one, a missionary, in the class of 1874. 

The father of Charles Chapin Tracy was a pioneer 
farmer, and was a man remarkable for his generosity, 
and one who lived peaceably with all men. The mother 
was a woman of marked piety and of heroic spirit. His 
mother died when he was fourteen years of age and 
his father died four years later. 

Mr. Tracy prepared himself for college, learning 
Latin and Greek alone, in the interim of work on the 
farm, and entered college as a Junior in 1862. In col- 
lege he was a member of the Philologian Society, of 
which he was secretary one quarter, and for which, in 
the Adelphic Union Exhibition, March 2, 1864, he was 
one of the disputants; he was a member of the Mills 
Theological Society, of which he was vice-president two 
terms; and also a member of the Athletic Baseball Club. 
He was both Poet and Historian on Class Day. He 
was an assiduous and successful student, and was grad- 
uated with Phi Beta Kappa rank. At Commencement 
he read the "iEsthetical" Poem. On graduation he en- 
tered Union Theological Seminary, where he spent 
three years, graduating in 1867. On July 17 of the 
same year he was ordained by Presbytery, and on the 
24th of the following month, he sailed with his wife 
from New York for Liverpool, under the appointment 
of the American Board as a missionary to Western 
Turkey. He was at first located at Marsovan, 350 
miles east of Constantinople. His first work was with 
theological training classes. After two and a half 
years he was called to Constantinople, where he was 

[484] 



Biographical Sketches 

engaged in literary work and preaching, till 1873, when 
he was recalled to the seminary. 

In view of the long period of useful service which 
Mr. Tracy was destined to render in Turkey, it will be 
interesting here to read his first impression as given in 
a letter of date November 16, 1867. "This is Turkey," 
he writes, "as it presents itself to me: selfishness pre- 
vails, truth and righteousness are trampled upon 
wherever people dare to do it. Extortion, inefficiency, 
folly, bribery, oppression, bear the name of government. 
Right, separate from self-interest, is an idea that has 
not yet dawned upon the Turk. A moral torpor pre- 
vails; the hand of justice is palsied. Temporal inter- 
ests are in no better condition. The moral basis of com- 
merce is wanting. The seller always asks twice what 
he expects to take, and gives goods worse than his sam- 
ples. The buyer offers half what he expects to give. 
Every one is as dishonest as he can be under the 
circumstances. . . . 

"If you wish to know how we feel, I will thus ex- 
press it, — We are satisfied. The field is great enough ; 
the work extensive enough; the sense of our Master's 
approval encouragement enough. 

"The plain of Marsovan is beautiful; the ring of 
mountains around is grand ; the air is as fine and health- 
ful as that of New England. I thank God that we are 
here, and that I am not engaged in a scramble after a 
pulpit in America. We have few friends, but they are 
very dear, and thus far we are happy. We wish con- 
tinued remembrance in your prayers." 

While Dr. Tracy has had wide experience in the 
performance of a great variety of missionary labors, 
such as preaching, itinerating, establishing churches, 
organizing Sunday-schools, building houses of worship, 
his great and distinctive work has been in the line of 
education, particularly in connection with the found- 

[ *85 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

ing and developing of Anatolia College, of which he 
was until recently president. The history of this insti- 
tution would be largely a record of Dr. Tracy's life 
work. 

Anatolia College, whose development owes so much 
to the efforts of Dr. Tracy and which has recently 
passed the twenty-fifth anniversary of its founding, is 
one of the most important of the higher institutions 
under the care of the American Board. It has ten 
nationalities represented in its list of students, among 
them being Russians, Roumanians, Macedonians, and 
Egyptians. 

A report rendered in 1908, when the college was 
twenty-two years old, stated that 1540 young men had 
been connected with it, of whom 226 had been grad- 
uated, and that about 300 were then in attendance. Its 
standard of scholarship is high, and the instruction 
given is distinctly religious. In vacations these stu- 
dents go forth into various parts of the East carrying 
with them the light and knowledge of the gospel, thus 
exemplifying the motto of the college: "The Morn- 
ing Cometh." The college needs and deserves a goodly 
sum for endowment and the erection of buildings. 
That the college merits the help of the Christian 
wealth of America, is evidenced by the fact that it was 
the first missionary college selected to be aided by Dr. 
D. K. Pearsons. The college has commended itself 
by its work not only to the people but to the Govern- 
ment, which some twelve years ago established the col- 
lege by a firman. It has already proved a mighty 
agency in the regeneration of modern Turkey. In an 
article on "Anatolia College," printed in the Mission- 
ary Herald for 1903, Dr. Tracy enumerated the fol- 
lowing among the results obtained: The students 
generally graduate with the love of Christ in their 
hearts and the determination to devote their lives to 

[ 486 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

his service; at least a sixth of the graduates become 
ministers of the gospel and about a third become teach- 
ers; those who become physicians or merchants, or fol- 
low other professions, generally take rank far ahead 
of others in the same pursuits, both as concerns ability 
and moral character; almost all the Christian laborers 
in the Marsovan field, as well as in many other fields 
far and near, have come from the college and the girls' 
boarding-school; and besides these results there is a 
widely pervasive influence of the college, which refuses 
to be put in statistical form. 

Anatolia College, however, is but one of a group of 
institutions included in one compound. Within the 
forty acres of land belonging to the mission, are 
situated also the girls' school, the high school, the Ana- 
tolia college hospital, the orphanages, and the theo- 
logical school, which is really the parent of the college. 
To say nothing of the influence radiating far beyond, 
the power of the college is immediately decisive for 
good in a tract of country comprising nearly 80,000 
square miles. 

On account of health, Dr. and Mrs. Tracy spent 
the period 1875-78 in this country. Subsequent visits 
to this country were made in 1891, 1902, and 1914. 

After almost a half-century of faithful service, in 
which they have "experienced the rigors of toil, the per- 
ils of famine, pestilence, and massacre, and borne the 
burden of heavy responsibility," Dr. and Mrs. Tracy 
still find themselves in almost full strength at three 
score and fifteen. Until his recent resignation, Dr. 
Tracy presided with efficiency over the institution he 
has done so much to establish and develop. When, a 
few years ago, there was celebrated the completion of 
forty years of service, along with the fortieth anniver- 
sary of his marriage and his seventieth birthday, the 
proceedings showed in how great esteem Dr. and Mrs. 

[487] 



Williams College and Missions 

Tracy are held by the members of the mission and the 
natives. 

He was married August 14, 1867, at Athens, Penn- 
sylvania, to Myra A., daughter of Chester and Lemira 
(Fish) Park, granddaughter of Jabez and Susanna 
(Dana) Fish and Moses and Mary (Spalding) Park, 
and a descendant of Robert Park. Susanna Dana was 
daughter of Colonel Anderson Dana, who perished with 
the troops he commanded at the massacre of Wyoming, 
1778. 

Of eight children born to them, three are living: 
Charles Kellogg Tracy, missionary at Smyrna, Tur- 
key; Henry Chester Tracy, Professor of Botany and 
Agriculture, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California; 
and Mary Theodora Tracy, teacher at Marsovan, Tur- 
key in Asia. 

Besides frequent letters, Dr. Tracy has contributed 
to the Missionary Herald numerous illuminating arti- 
cles, among which may be mentioned, "The Greek 
Work in the Marsovan District"; "Anatolia College 
as an Evangelizing Agency"; "Missions of the Amer- 
ican Board in Asiatic Turkey"; "Matters New and Old 
in the Levant"; "The Outlook for Christ in Asiatic 
Turkey." Besides these he has published, "The Fam- 
ily" (Constantinople, 1872); "Myra" (Boston, 1877); 
"Talks on the Veranda" (Boston, 1893) ; "Notes on 
Hebrews"; also many brochures, hymns, etc. 

Dr. Tracy received from his Alma Mater the degree 
of Master of Arts in course, in 1887, and the honorary 
degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1894. 



CLASS OF 1865 
Thomas Lafon Gulick was born on missionary 
ground and belonged to a missionary family, his father 
and five brothers and sisters being missionaries. He 

[488 ] 



Biog rapl i iced S ke t ch cs 

was born at Koloa, Kauai, Hawaiian Islands, April 
10, 1839. He was the son of Rev. Peter Johnson and 
Fanny Hinckley (Thomas) Gulick, and grandson of 
John Gulick, who was a farmer in Freehold, New Jer- 
sey. He was descended, on the father's side, from 
Hendrick Gulick, who came to New York from the 
Netherlands in 1653. Rev. Peter Johnson Gulick, 
the father, was a missionary in the Hawaiian Islands 
1828-1874. He died at Kobe, Japan, in 1877. The 
mother, who was daughter of a farmer of Scotch 
and English ancestry, was a native of Lebanon, Con- 
necticut. The father is described as being strong and 
decisive in action, while the mother was reflective, 
thoughtful, and well poised in character. Of their 
eight children, six were at one and the same time in the 
service of the American Board, — four in Japan and 
two in Spain. One brother of the subject of our 
sketch — John Thomas Gulick, missionary to China and 
Japan — was graduated here in 1859. The name of 
Gulick has been associated with American missions for 
more than four score years. 

Thomas Lafon Gulick had studied at Oahu and Rut- 
gers Colleges before coming to Williams, which he 
entered as a Junior in 1863. In college he was a mem- 
ber of the Mills Theological Society; of the Philologian 
Society, of which he was for a time president, and for 
which he was one of the disputants at the Adelphic 
Union Exhibition; was a speaker at the Prize Rhetori- 
cal Exhibition, August 2, 1864; was a member of the 
Williams Art Association, and curator of the Sunrise 
Club; and was Orator to the Lower Classes on Class 
Day. He was a successful student, graduating with 
Phi Beta Kappa rank, and at Commencement had an 
Honorary Oration, the subject being "Newspapers." 

After graduating from college, he studied theology 
two years at Union Seminary, and one year at Andover, 

[ 489 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

from which he was graduated in 1868. While at An- 
dover he received and accepted a call from the Com- 
mittee of the New York City Mission. For six months 
he preached in Olivet Chapel, Second Street, and sub- 
sequently, for a time, in Lebanon Chapel, Columbia 
Street. In 1870, he was acting pastor of the Ameri- 
can Presbyterian Church in Montreal, Canada; and on 
May 15 of the same year he was ordained by a Con- 
gregational Council at North Manchester, Connecti- 
cut. For a time, in 1871, he was engaged in railway 
mission work in Chicago, Illinois. On May 17, 1873, 
he, with his wife, under appointment of the American 
Board, sailed from New York for Glasgow, on his way 
to join the mission in Spain. He arrived at Santander 
July 5. He spent ten years of faithful service in 
Spain, being located for a time at Santander and 
Madrid, and after 1875, at Zaragoza. From this 
place he wrote a letter to the class secretary, from 
which the following extracts are made: "I had the 
pleasure, last autumn, of attending, by invitation, as 
Secretary of the Evangelical Alliance of Spain and 
Portugal, the General Conference of the Alliance in 
Bale. It was especially pleasant to see so many Amer- 
ican friends and old acquaintances for the first time 
since we left that goodly land. ... I returned from 
Bale by the San Gotthard Pass and the Italian Lakes. 
In Turin I met M. Meille, the pastor of a Waldensian 
church in Venice. He told me that Dr. Justin Em- 
erson had spent last winter in Venice. . . . We have 
now been in Zaragoza about four years. Though our 
work is only a beginning, a laying of foundations in 
the face of much opposition and violence, we enjoy it 
and hope to have the privilege of continuing in it." His 
brother, William H., was a missionary in Spain at the 
same time. His letters speak of the formation of a 
church in 1877, and of a Young Men's Christian As- 

[490] 



Biograph ical Sketch es 

soclation two years later, of new accessions to the 
church, of night schools, and of a Sunday-school num- 
bering 120. And the progress of which he wrote was 
in the face of continued and persistent opposition and 
even persecution at the hands of the civil and reli- 
gious authorities, and at one time he barely escaped 
assassination. 

An interesting glimpse of Mr. and Mrs. Gulick's 
work is given us by his brother, Rev. Oramel H. Gulick, 
of the Japan Mission, who on his way to this country 
visited them, and under date of January 4, 1881, wrote 
as follows: "An attentive congregation, mostly of 
very poor people, from 125 to 150 in number, nearly fill 
their audience room Sabbath morning and evening, and 
an exceptionally interesting Sabbath-school of over 100 
meets at 3 p. m. A prayer meeting Tuesday evening 
and a preaching service Thursday, besides a weekly 
meeting for women, and a weekly sewing school, fill 
the week with a busy round. " 

After ten years of this self-denying service he re- 
turned to this country in 1883, and the following year, 
on account of the health of his wife, he resigned his 
connection with the Board. He then became agent 
of the American Bible Society in Cuba for one year, 
and in 1885 was home missionary in Las Vegas, New 
Mexico. In 1886 he returned to the Hawaiian Is- 
lands and became pastor of the Union Foreign Church 
at Makawao, Maui, which position he held until 1893. 
From 1894 to 1896, he was in the service of the McAll 
Mission in New York, and in the latter year he became 
superintendent and chaplain of the Cathcart Home and 
Richardson Home at Devon, Pennsylvania, which po- 
sition he held the rest of his life. The year 1900-01 
was spent in travel in Egypt, India, China, Japan, and 
Hawaii. 

In 1904 Mr. Gulick went on a visit to Africa in 

[491 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

company with Mr. Samuel T. Alexander of Oakland, 
California, who was also a son of one of the earlier mis- 
sionaries to the Hawaiian Islands, and who was for a 
time a member of the class of 1861 at Williams. While 
on their way from Mombasa to Uganda, Mr. Gulick 
was prostrated with gastritis and died suddenly at 
Kijabi, in British East Africa, June 15. After the 
death of his companion, Mr. Alexander, on visiting 
Victoria Falls on the Zambesi, was there injured by 
the falling of a rock on his foot, rendering amputation 
necessary, and died from the effects of the operation. 
Mr. Gulick was married in Chicago, Illinois, No- 
vember 25, 1872, to Miss Alice Elmira Walbridge, a 
teacher, who was born at Ithaca, New York, and had 
been educated at Ithaca Academy. She survived her 
husband, dying in Honolulu, where she had resided 
since 1909. 

Fkank Thompson, son of Launcelot Thompson, 
was born December 14, 1835, in New York City. He 
entered college as a Freshman in 1861. In college he 
was a member of the Mills Theological Society, of 
which he was for a time librarian; of the Lyceum of 
Natural History, of which he was for a time secretary ; 
of the Sigma Phi Fraternity, having for a time been a 
member of the Anti- Secret Confederation; of the Art 
Association; the Shakespere Club; the Sunrise Club; 
the Eckford Baseball Club; and of a chess club, of 
which he was sometime treasurer. According to the 
General Catalogue he served for a time in the Civil 
War, being Lieutenant in a New York Regiment of 
United States Volunteers. He studied theology in 
Union Theological Seminary for one year, 1865-66, 
and subsequently in the Theological Institute of Con- 
necticut, at which he was graduated in 1868. He was 
ordained to the Congregational ministry in November 

[ 492] 



Biograph ical Sketches 

of the same year, and became pastor of the English 
Chapel at Hilo, Hawaii, where, according to his class- 
mate, Gnlick, he was much liked by his people. He 
spent six years in this position and then returned to the 
United States and became pastor of a church in Wind- 
ham, Connecticut, where he remained from 1875 to 
1881. From the latter year to 1883 he was pastor of 
a church in Wilton, Connecticut. In the Class Report, 
published in 1880, is a letter from Thompson, in which 
he reports himself as married and having two daugh- 
ters. The report published seven years later gives his 
address as Valparaiso, Chili, South America, whither 
he went in 1883, his health not permitting him to live 
Xorth during winters. He was then a Congregational 
pastor at Valparaiso and doing well. 



CLASS OF 1866 
Robekt Hoskixs, son of Nathan Hoskins, was born 
in Bennington, Vermont, May 7, 1843. His father 
was a lawyer by profession. The son entered college 
from Bennington in 1862. He was a member of the 
Philologian Society and of the Mills Theological So- 
ciety. He was also a member of the Piedmont Base- 
ball Club. As a student he seems to have been some- 
thing of an ascetic and pietist, of a retiring and unso- 
ciable disposition, and one who gave little intimation of 
the large success that was to come to him. After grad- 
uation he pursued a short course of study in Union 
Theological Seminary, and in April, 1867, he was or- 
dained deacon by the Troy Conference of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church. About the same time he was 
appointed by the Board of Foreign Missions of his 
church as a missionary to India. He and his wife sailed 
September 10, of the same year, arriving in India Feb- 
ruary 1, 1868. His fields of labor were Bijnaur, 

[ 493 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

Budaun, Shahjahanpur, and Cawnpore, all in the 
United Provinces, North India. The following ex- 
tract is from a letter of date February 5, 1869, written 
from Bijnaur to a college classmate and published in 
a Class Report: "I have been here alone, in charge 
of an immense field ( 700,000 souls ) , with three English 
and four vernacular schools under my superintendence, 
one native preacher and four exhorters. I have bap- 
tized fifty persons, and my little church has grown from 
twenty-seven to fifty-four. There are yet over 100 
candidates for baptism. . . . Baptism here is the cru- 
cial question; oftentimes by it families are broken up, 
and life-long enmities are engendered. A wonderful 
revival has been going on among one of the lower 
classes; from among them I have already received 
twenty-five, and the surrounding villages are asking 
that the word of God may be given them. As yet I 
cannot send to all, as I have not men capable of lead- 
ing these souls to Christ. But I am providing as fast 
as I can for the future. Each evening I gather my 
people together and teach them to read Hindu, lec- 
ture to them on Bible doctrines, and urge them to a 
present full reliance on Christ for salvation. I have five 
men now, day laborers, who seem to get my meaning 
almost intuitively, as I attempt to open up the wonders 
of grace." 

In 1899 Dr. Hoskins established industrial work, 
including carpentry, blacksmithing, painting, and cane- 
weaving, in the boys' orphanage at Cawnpore, placing 
in the orphanage the boys rescued from starvation dur- 
ing the famine of the year before. 

He died suddenly at Cawnpore, September 22, 1903, 
from apoplexy induced by heat. 

He did successful missionary work for thirty-seven 
years, during which time he had enjoyed only three fur- 
lough periods. His work was the practical kind of mis- 

[494] 



Biographical Sketches 

sionary work, and for this he had been fitted by his ex- 
perience in college, where he acquired considerable me- 
chanical education while being compelled to devise 
means for earning his way through college. While his 
knowledge of mechanics made it possible for him to 
start several training schools where were made several 
articles of furniture, some knowledge of medicine en- 
abled him to treat the sick with simple medicines. In 
these and other similar ways he was enabled to aid the 
natives in material things and thus to gain more ready 
access to their souls. He had been for many years a 
leader in the missionary work in that part of India, and 
from January, 1898, until his death he was Presiding 
Elder of the Cawnpore District. The loss of such a 
man was great, not only to the natives, but to his col- 
leagues and to the churches which supported the work. 

The following tribute to Dr. Hoskins, published in 
the Northwestern Christian Advocate, October 28, 
1903, is by the Rev. Thomas Craven, of India: 

"Dr. Hoskins was a forceful and original leader. 
He was among the first, if not the very first, to dis- 
cover the elect of. the Lord among the 'depressed 
classes,' to break away from the missionary traditions 
in respect to these lower castes and throw his soul into 
the work of disciplining them. Indeed, not a few effi- 
cient native evangelists who became successful in win- 
ning the thousands of converts of more recent years, 
were prepared in those early days by this patient, mod- 
est and, in America, little-mentioned worker. 

"As we have said, he was original as well as force- 
ful. One of the many cases we could give will suffice 
to illustrate this trait. The native evangelist alluded 
to we know well. Brother Hoskins found him a scaven- 
ger on a scavenger's cart. He called him down and 
talked with him. He explained that he should first 
take his cart home, then return to him and (after the 

[495 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

custom of the country) become a disciple; that he would 
be taught to read in books and he should prepare for 
what God may have for him to do. Hoskins undertook 
his support. Thus, under the influence of the teach- 
ing he received and the transforming power of the Holy 
Spirit, one of the greatest evangelists and the hymn- 
writer of the Methodist Church in India was called into 
service. 

"Dr. Hoskins, I believe, also first conceived the idea 
of the short-term helpers' school. His fertile brain 
was always originating some new method by which he 
might the more effectively storm the fortress of heath- 
enism. He cared not who took the credit, so the ob- 
ject should be accomplished. He was an unselfish 
follower of Christ and an untiring worker in his cause. 

"His literary work was extensive. His greatest 
work was a Concordance of the Scriptures, to which he 
gave years of labor and bankrupted his treasury. He 
spoke Hindustani fluently and wrote it elegantly. He 
was a member of the Bible Revision Committee." 

Rev. Rockwell Claney wrote from Muttra, India, 
concerning him: "Dr. Hoskins was greatly loved by all, 
and was especially successful in training young men 
for the ministry, more than 100 of whom are now in 
active service as a result of his labors." 

On July 25, 1867, he married Charlotte Lewis 
Roundey, who survived him with three sons, one of the 
sons being the Class Boy. Mrs. Hoskins resides in 
Cheyenne, Wyoming. 

Dr. Hoskins was the author of an "Urdu Concord- 
ance of the Bible," a "Roman Urdu Concordance of the 
Bible," and an "Urdu Commentary on the Gospel ac- 
cording to St. John." 

He received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 
from Boston University in 1886. 



496 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

CLASS OF 18G8 

Oliver Pomeroy Emerson, son of Rev. John S. 
and Ursula Sophia (Newell) Emerson, was born at 
Lahainaluna, Maui, Hawaiian Islands, July 27, 1845. 
He was grandson of Captain John and Elizabeth 
(French) Emerson, both from New Hampshire, and 
of Rev. Gad and Sophia (Clapp) Newell. Rev. Gad 
Newell of Nelson, New Hampshire, was a graduate 
of Yale (1786), and lived to be over 95 years of 
age. Dexter ("Yale Biographies and Annals") 
says of him: "Mr. Newell was a plain, direct preacher, 
of dignified bearing, simple in expression, free from 
mannerisms, and from display in voice or gesture. He 
adhered to the doctrines of the Westminster Confes- 
sion and had the satisfaction of seeing his people re- 
main united and prosperous under his ministry." One 
of his sons was graduated at the Yale Medical School 
in 1822. 

Rev. John S. Emerson, the father of the subject 
of our sketch, born at Chester, New Hampshire, was 
graduated at Dartmouth in 1826 and Andover Theo- 
logical Seminary in 1830. He was a member of the 
Phi Beta Kappa Society and for one year was tutor 
at Dartmouth. In 1831 he went as a missionary to the 
Sandwich Islands, where he was a member of the mis- 
sion nearly thirty-five years. His life was character- 
ized by an earnest Christian faith. He devoted much 
time to teaching the Bible, and it was said of his efforts 
in this particular, that in no part of the Islands had 
the people been more in the habit of reading the Scrip- 
tures than in his special field. He also acted upon the 
intense belief that the natives must be educated in the 
practical industries of civilized life, and in accordance 
with this belief, he taught the people the arts of agri- 
culture. He also prepared an English-Hawaiian 
Dictionary and elementary text-books. In his mis- 

[ 497 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

sionary labors his wife was an efficient helper. For 
years she conducted the singing in the church and con- 
stantly administered to the wants of the people in sick- 
ness and health. Such were the parents of Oliver 
Pomeroy Emerson. 

The family of Emerson traces its ancestry to Eng- 
land and is illustrious in the annals of American his- 
tory. Michael Emerson emigrated from England and 
settled in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1655. His wife, 
Hannah Webster, was daughter of John Webster, 
who was born in England and settled in Ipswich, Mas- 
sachusetts, 1634. Thomas Newell, an ancestor on the 
mother's side, came from England to Farmington, 
Connecticut, about 1640. His wife, Rebeccah Olm- 
stead, came to Boston in 1632. Another ancestor, Roger 
Clapp, born in Devonshire, England, settled in Dor- 
chester, Massachusetts, in 1630, and was governor of 
the castle in Boston harbor over twenty years. Sam- 
uel Emerson, the great-grandfather of Oliver P. Em- 
erson, was distinguished for his patriotism, and had five 
sons, all of whom served in the armies of the French 
and Indian Wars or in the War of the Revolution. 
Rev. Stephen Batchelder, who was one of the ancestors 
of the wife of Samuel Emerson, was distinguished for 
his opposition to the New England hierarchy. 

Oliver Pomeroy Emerson pursued his preparatory 
studies in the school at Punahou and at Oahu College 
(both in Honolulu), and entered Williams as a Sopho- 
more in 1865. Among his classmates were James H. 
Canfield and Philip Van Ness Myers. In college he 
was a member of the Lyceum of Natural History; of 
the Mills Theological Society, of which he was for a 
time vice-president; of the Philomelian Association; of 
the Philologian Society, of which he was for a time 
treasurer, and for which he was a disputant in the 
Adelphic Union Debate, October 16, 1867; he was 

[498 ] 






Biographical Sketches 

president of the Class Debating Society; one of the 
speakers at the Moonlight Exhibition in his Junior 
year; a member of two baseball clubs, of one of which 
he was director; was a member of the Committee on 
Songs at the Biennial and at the Class Day; and was 
one of the speakers at Commencement, the subject of 
his oration being "Rogers' 'Wounded Scout.' ' 

Justin E. Emerson (Williams 1865) was a brother 
who had two sons graduate at Williams, in 1902 and 
1907, respectively. Mr. Emerson studied theology at 
Andover Seminary, from which he was graduated in 
1871. He received the degree of Master of Arts from 
his Alma Mater the same year. During the years 1868- 
69 he was a teacher in the Phillips Academy at An- 
dover. On graduation from the seminary Mr. Emer- 
son became for two years pastor of the Congregational 
Church in Lynnfield Centre, Massachusetts. He was 
pastor of the Congregational Church in Allegheny 
City, Pennsylvania, 1874-77; supplied the Congrega- 
tional Church in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, 1877- 
79; and was pastor of the Congregational Church in 
Peacedale, Rhode Island, 1880-88. In 1889, under the 
appointment of the American Board, he became Secre- 
tary of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, which 
position he held till 1904, when he became, for a year, 
Agent of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association for the 
islands of Maui, Molokai, and Lanai. The year 1906- 
07 was spent at the Harvard Divinity School. The fol- 
lowing year he supplied a church at Farmington, 
Connecticut. 

Mr. Emerson was called to his responsible position 
in the Sandwich Islands at a most important period in 
the history of the Islands. By birth, education, and 
experience he was exceptionally well fitted for the work 
he had to do. He thoroughly understood the native 
character and well knew what needed to be done in that 

[ 499 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

critical period of the people's development. That he 
discharged his duty with fidelity and general acceptance 
may be inferred from the following extract, taken from 
the minutes of the Hawaiian Board which they re- 
corded in accepting his resignation: "Coming at a criti- 
cal time in the history of Hawaiian Christianity, when 
the reactionary movement towards paganism threat- 
ened its very life, Mr. Emerson threw himself into the 
work and helped to save the day. Thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the native character, perfectly at home 
in the language of the Islands, and gifted with rare tact 
in guiding the Hawaiian pastors and people, Mr. Em- 
erson rendered very great service. During all these 
years he has been a prominent figure in the religious 
life of Hawaii, and in the severance of the relations 
which have so long subsisted, the Board gratefully ac- 
knowledges the debt owed Brother Emerson for his 
devoted labor of love and wishes him many years of 
ever enlarging joy and blessedness in the work to which 
he now goes." 

Mr. Emerson was married at Roxbury, Massachu- 
setts, February 13, 1896, to Eugenie, daughter of 
Thomas J. and Mary E. (Fisher) Homer, grand- 
daughter of Joseph Warren and Sarah (Rea) Homer, 
and a descendant of Captain John Homer, who came 
from Sedgeley, Stafford County, England, to Cape 
Cod about 1670. 

They have no children. Mr. and Mrs. Emerson are 
both living and reside in Providence, Rhode Island. 



CLASS OF 1869 
Horace Hall Leavitt, son of Erasmus Darwin 
and Almira (Fay) Leavitt, was born in Lowell, Massa- 
chusetts, July 8, 1846. He fitted for college in Low- 
ell High School, and entered college as a Freshman in 

r soo] 



Biographical Sketches 

the fall of 1865. He took one of the prizes at the Rhe- 
torical Exhibition held at Commencement 1866. He 
was a member of the Mills Theological Society, also 
of the Philologian Society, of which he was for a time 
treasurer, and also library inspector, and for which he 
was one of the disputants in a debate held in 1868. He 
was a member of the Logomachian Society, of which 
he was for a time president; was vice-president of a 
chess club; a member of the Class Baseball Club; one 
of the Committee of Arrangements for the Biennial of 
1869; was Captain of his Class all the four years; and 
at the Class Day Exercises held June 22, 1869, he was 
the Orator, his subject being "Consecration." He was 
also one of the speakers at Commencement, having the 
English Oration, the subject of which was "Responsi- 
bility in Society." 

After graduating he spent a year in various kinds 
of business, mainly as an insurance agent, devoting 
some time also to the study of law. In the fall 
of 1870 he entered Andover Theological Seminary, 
though having the purpose of becoming a lawyer. 
He soon found the study of theology congenial, 
and accordingly completed the course in the sem- 
inary, where he was graduated in 1873. During 
the summer of 1871 he supplied a pulpit in Hiram, 
Maine. He was ordained as a foreign missionary 
at Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, June 19, 1873, 
Dr. Mark Hopkins preaching the sermon. He sailed 
the following October from San Francisco for Osaka, 
Japan, arriving at Kobe November 15. He was sta- 
tioned at Osaka 1873-75. Some account of his first ex- 
perience in this mission field is given in the following 
extract from a letter written to the secretary of his col- 
lege class: "I remained in Japan a little more than a 
year, when I returned to the United States, seeking 
health. The time of my reaching Japan proved a 

[501] 



Williams College and Missions 

marked era in our work, the seed sown in the few pre- 
vious years having even so soon ripened, and the call 
for churches was heard. My colleagues in Osaka were 
forced, from different causes, to leave the city for a 
time, and I was left in charge of a small work at a time 
when I had but three months' knowledge of the people 
or language. The stimulus was great — the work in- 
spiring. I was well and favorably circumstanced, and 
I threw myself into it, only too glad of the opportunity. 
The work rapidly enlarged from various causes, and the 
strain was only known after it was over. I finally 
broke down under an effort at four preaching services 
a week — of course only preaching by apology, as my 
language was a mere shadow of that needed — in June, 
after having been in the country a little over seven 
months. I spent the remainder of the year in trying 
to regain my health here, and sailed for America in 
February, 1875, where I spent a year, for the most part 
in the forests and mountains of Maine." In February, 
1876, having been recently married, he returned with 
his wife, to Japan, locating at his former station, Osaka. 
Though he was for some time after his return in feeble 
health, he remained at his post for five years, doing 
successful work in preaching and establishing churches 
and schools. Early in 1881 he resigned his connection 
with the Board, and, returning to this country, was set- 
tled for a year at Andover, Massachusetts, and in Sep- 
tember, 1882, he became pastor of the Congregational 
Church in North Andover, where he remained nearly 
eleven years, and where his labors were attended with 
success. After a year of rest and study he took the 
pastorate of the Congregational Church in Somerville, 
Massachusetts, in 1894. In 1905, owing to ill health, 
he gave up his charge at Somerville, and preached for 
a few months in Maine. Since November of 1905 he 
has not attempted to preach. Though he spent a year 

[502] 



Biographical Sketches 

or more on the Pacific Coast in pursuit of health, 
the change of climate seems to have been without 
permanent benefit. He now resides in Somerville, 
Massachusetts. 

He was married January 19, 1876, to Miss Mary 
Augusta Kelly, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. She 
was educated at Tilden Seminary, Lebanon, New 
Hampshire, and at Mount Holyoke. 

Their children are two sons and four daughters: 
Mary Augusta; Caroline Frances; Charlotte Eliza- 
beth; Horace Hall, Jr.; Almira Fay; Erasmus Dar- 
win. In a letter written from California to the class 
secretary in the year of the fortieth reunion of the class, 
Mr. Leavitt says of his family: "I am favored still 
that my wife and children are all living; my wife and 
two youngest are here, the four older children are at the 
East. Two of my children, girls, are married. The 
next to the oldest is Mrs. Crist, the assistant principal 
of Swarthmore Preparatory School, Pennsylvania. 
The next in age, Mrs. Gilpatric, of Bay Ridge, New 
York, he a lawyer in New York City. My oldest 
child, a daughter, is a physician in Somerville, Massa- 
chusetts. The fourth child, a son, is a student in Un- 
ion Theological Seminary, New York. The fifth 
child, a daughter, is registrar of Mills College, Cali- 
fornia, and teacher of English. The sixth child, a son, 
is Master of Boone's University School, Berkeley, 
California." 

William Redfield Stocking was born of mission- 
ary parents and on missionary ground. He was the 
son of William Redfield and Jerusha Emily (Gilbert) 
Stocking, and the grandson of Seth and Hannah 
(Pratt) Stocking and Ezra and Rebecca (Miner) 
Gilbert. He was born at Urumia, Persia, March 31, 
1844. Mr. Stocking's father was a missionary to the 

[ 503 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

Nestorians from 1837 to 1853, and was spoken of in 
the Missionary Herald as one of the "indefatigable 
laborers" of the mission. The family traces its descent 
from George Stocking, who came to America from 
Suffolk, England, in 1633, and settled in Cambridge, 
Massachusetts. In 1636 he went as one of Thomas 
Hooker's company of one hundred to Hartford, Con- 
necticut, and became one of the founders of that city. 
Deacon Samuel, a son of George Stocking, married in 
1652 Bertha Hopkins, daughter of Samuel Hopkins 
of the Mayflower, and resided in Cromwell, Connecti- 
cut. Samuel Hopkins was a Sergeant in King Philip's 
War, and was an extensive shipbuilder and owner. 

The earliest years of William Redfield Stocking 
were spent in Persia. The years when he would regu- 
larly have been fitting for college fell in the period of 
our Civil War. He responded to the call of his coun- 
try and in 1862 enlisted in the 34th Regiment of Mas- 
sachusetts Infantry, with which he remained for three 
years and participated with honor in eleven of its 
engagements. 

He fitted for college at the State Normal School, 
Westfleld, and at Williston Seminary, Easthampton, 
Massachusetts. He entered college in 1867 at the be- 
ginning of the Junior year of his class and remained 
until the close of the course but did not graduate. In 
college he was a member of the Mills Theological So- 
ciety, of which he was for a time president and for a 
time vice-president; of the Philologian Society, of 
which he was for a time vice-president and also treas- 
urer ; and of the Lyceum of Natural History. He was 
withal an athlete, and was a member of the baseball 
nine of his class. 

The years 1869-71 he spent in Andover Theological 
Seminary, and was ordained June 19, 1871, at West- 
field, Massachusetts, in the Second Congregational 

[ 504- ] 



Biographical Sketches 

Church, of which Rev. Henry Hopkins was pastor. 

He was married the following day to Miss Hattie 
E. Lyman, daughter of Deacon Samuel and Julia 
(Searle) Lyman of Southampton, Massachusetts. On 
August 9 of the same year Mr. and Mrs. Stocking 
sailed from Xew York for Liverpool as missionaries 
of the Presbyterian Board, en route for Persia. From 
Liverpool they crossed the Continent to Constantinople 
and thence to Trebizond, from which place they rode 
on horseback 600 miles across Turkey to Urumia, which 
was to be their station. They reached their Persian 
home just ten weeks after sailing from New York, and 
received a cordial welcome from the natives and mem- 
bers of the mission. There was an added pleasure in 
Mr. Stocking's returning to the place where he was 
born and spent his earliest years, and where his father 
had labored for sixteen years. After spending about 
a year in learning the language and becoming accli- 
mated, Mr. and Mrs. Stocking were sent on a tour 
through Kurdistan. While on the plains of the Tigris 
River Mr. Stocking was overcome by a sunstroke, and 
Mrs. Stocking died August 17, 1872, from a complica- 
tion of sicknesses. She was buried at Hassanna, a few 
miles east of the Tigris River. Mr. Stocking married 
again October 28, 1873, at Florence, Italy, Miss Isa- 
bella Baker, daughter of Samuel and Sophia (Par- 
sons) Baker. She was formerly from Wiscasset, 
Maine, and a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, but 
at the time of her marriage she had been for five years 
a missionary teacher in Mardin, Eastern Turkey. 

Mr. Stocking remained seven years in Persia doing 
all kinds of missionary service, but having particular 
care of the work among the mountain districts of Kur- 
distan in Asiatic Turkey, where Dr. Ashiel Grant, Rev. 
Samuel Audley Rhea, and others had labored. The 
duties of this field involved a long and difficult mission- 

[ 505 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

ary tour each year, and Mr. Stocking estimates that in 
those tours he had ridden not less than 15,000 miles 
on horseback, in Turkey and Persia. After the death 
of Rev. J. G. Cochran Mr. Stocking had charge for 
one year of the mission school at Seir. He was also 
treasurer of the Urumia station for several years, and 
made a number of tours to the seacoast and to other 
places in the interest of the general work of the 
mission. 

In 1878 Mr. Stocking with his wife and four chil- 
dren returned to this country in the hope that rest and 
change would benefit Mrs. Stocking's health. The 
next three years he devoted to resting and delivering 
lectures on Persia, expecting to return again to his mis- 
sion field. When it was found that Mrs. Stocking's 
health would not admit of this, he became pastor of the 
Church of Christ in White Oaks, Williamstown, where 
Professor Albert Hopkins labored for so many years. 
This position Mr. Stocking held from February, 1882, 
until November, 1885. In 1886 he was appointed 
superintendent of the workhouse on Blackwell's Island, 
New York City. Of work done here and subsequently 
by Mr. Stocking, the secretary of the class of 1869 
writes as follows: ^'Here he found opportunity for 
effectual work among the inmates. The number of 
commitments to the institution during the first three 
years of Stocking's administration was nearly 68,000, 
with a daily average of about 2400 on the rolls. He 
organized Blackwell's Island Temperance Society, and 
in three years more than 6000 of the inmates of the 
workhouse took the pledge, many of whom were thus 
restored to usefulness. Later, Stocking was trans- 
ferred to the branch workhouse on Hart's Island. In 
1891 he took charge of the Fairview Home at West 
Troy, New York, having resigned the Hart's Island 
position for that purpose. During all these changes 

[ 506 1 



Biographical Sketches 

Mrs. Stocking's health continued to fail, and in 1890 she 
passed away, having been taken to the family home at 
"Steep Acres," near Williamstown. After a short 
time at West Troy, Stocking took up his permanent 
residence at Williamstown, where he has brought up 
his children and fitted them for lives of honor and use- 
fulness. He has lectured; has preached at White Oaks 
Chapel and elsewhere; has given an example of what 
an earnest, determined man can accomplish, under 
many difficulties and adverse circumstance. We are 
glad to do him honor." 

On the occasion of the third anniversary of the Black- 
well's Island Temperance Society, the editor of a reli- 
gious journal wrote: "Rev. William R. Stocking, for 
some years past superintendent of the workhouse on 
Blackwell's Island, has been quietly doing among the 
degraded inmates a work truly as 'missionary' as any 
to which he or his father ever put their hands in Per- 
sia. Some of the transformations of character on the 
island, wrought by God's blessing on his labors, are as 
wonderful as the pages of foreign missionary history 
record." 

By his second marriage there were born to Mr. 
Stocking nine children, of whom seven are living: 
Emily Holmes (Mrs. George K. Goodwin), Sharon 
Hill, Pennsylvania; Sophia Cochran, teacher, Wil- 
liamstown; Ethel, teacher, Williamstown; Annie 
Woodman (Mrs. Arthur Clifton Boyce), missionary of 
the Presbyterian Board, Teheran, Persia; William 
Redfield, Jr. (Williams 1905), teacher in Central High 
School, Detroit, Michigan; Samuel Baker (Williams 
1907), shipping business, Seattle, Washington; Charles 
Parsons (Williams 1910), mercantile business, Seattle, 
Washington. 



[507] 



Williams College and Missions 

CLASS OF 1871 

Lorin Samuel Gates, son of Orson Cowles and 
Laura (Loomis) Gates, was born in East Hartford, 
Connecticut, September 1, 1845. He was the grandson 
of Samuel and Lucy (Cowdery) Gates and of Lorin 
and Maria Ann (Gillett) Loomis. The first immi- 
grant ancestor in America is believed to have been 
George Gates, whose descendants settled in Haddam, 
Connecticut. 

The father of Lorin Samuel Gates was a farmer. 
The son fitted for college at Williston Seminary, and 
entered his class at Williams at the beginning of the 
Freshman year. The class of 1871 had a large number 
of members who gained honorable distinction in life. 
In college Mr. Gates was a member of the Philologian 
Society, of which he was for a time treasurer; of the 
Mills Theological Society; and of the Lyceum of Nat- 
ural History. In each of the last two he was for a time 
secretary. He was also a member of the Central Amer- 
ican Expedition. He was one of the speakers at Com- 
mencement, the subject of his oration being "Central 
America." 

After graduation, he taught for one year in a pri- 
vate school in Hamden, Connecticut, and in 1872 en- 
tered Yale Theological Seminary, from which he was 
graduated as Bachelor of Divinity in 1875. During 
the summer vacation of 1873 he preached under the 
direction of the Vermont Missionary Society in Orange, 
Vermont, and in the summers of 1874 and 1875 he 
preached in Cambridge, Vermont. He was ordained 
as an evangelist in Cambridge July 7, 1875, and on the 
6th of the following November he with his wife sailed 
from New York, under appointment of the American 
Board, for the Mahratta Mission, Western India, ar- 
riving at Bombay December 28. He was stationed at 
Sholapur, 280 miles southeast of Bombay, and has re- 

[ 508 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

mained there up to the present. Here his work has 
been both evangelistic and educational, and has ex- 
tended over a wide extent of territory. In 1879 he 
writes of spending a week or more at towns within sev- 
enty-five miles of Sholapur, and at another time of 
preaching in about seventy villages. In these towns he 
was often aided by the sciopticon in gathering audiences. 
From the first the church work and school work were 
highly successful, the schools proving feeders for the 
church. In 1890 he reported over 100 Christians in six- 
teen villages (outside of Sholapur), three churches or- 
ganized and eight schools established, and three years 
later he had under his care eight churches (two self- 
supporting) , eight preachers, and fourteen day schools. 
Mr. Gates has been prominent in relief work done dur- 
ing the years of famine. In January, 1901, he reported 
the number of workers in his camp as being 2247. 
Many of these were Mohammedan and high-caste 
women who had never done outdoor work before. The 
following extract from a letter gives some idea of the 
business of the camp: "The camp of workers is in 
charge of two native pastors who make semi- weekly 
payments, see that the people are kept at work, and 
keep order. Under them are many overseers, — one for 
about fifty persons. Three young ladies, one a doctor 
and the others somewhat skilled in nursing, who do not 
belong to our mission, who could leave their work for 
a time, — one from America, one from England, and 
one from New Zealand, — have generously given their 
time and strength without pay in helping us care for the 
needy. Our yard has been a busy place. A tent served 
for a dispensary, and grass huts and a stable for hospi- 
tals on one side; blasting and breaking stone went on 
in another place, burning lime, bringing and sifting 
sand elsewhere, deepening a well, building cheap houses 
for the orphans, carrying earth and stone to level up 

[ 509] 



Williams College and Missions 

the ground for the girls' school, digging for the founda- 
tion of the chapel enlargement, — these are some of the 
things that have kept us busy." This sort of relief 
work has, of course, opened the way for the establish- 
ment of schools and for doing the work of 
evangelization. 

Mr. Gates has had the rather rare joy of laboring 
for nearly forty years in the same field, and the work 
he has done as a preacher, teacher, and helper to the 
famine-stricken must bring him large satisfaction in 
this life. 

He and his wife have visited this country three times, 
—in 1886, 1895, and 1908. 

On October 20, 1875, Mr. Gates was married in 
Springfield, Massachusetts, to Fanny Anne, daughter 
of the missionaries, Rev. Dr. Allen and Martha (Cha- 
pin) Hazen, and granddaughter of Oliver and Anne 
(Pierce) Chapin, and of Austin and Sophia Hazen. 
She was born in Sirur, India, July 9, 1852. 

Her father, Rev. Allen Hazen, D.D., was a grad- 
uate of Dartmouth College in the class of 1842, and of 
Andover Seminary in 1845. He joined the Marathi 
Mission of the American Board in 1847, laboring at 
Ahmednagar, Sirur, and Bombay. Returning to the 
United States in 1872, on account of the health of Mrs. 
Hazen, he subsequently served several churches in New 
England. So strong was his love for the work in India 
that in 1891 he visited India with his daughter, and for 
two or three years labored in his own field at his own 
charges. He died May 12, 1898, at the home of his 
son, General Hazen, in Washington, D. C. 

Of eight children born to Mr. and Mrs. Gates six 
are living: Edith, a missionary, Ahmednagar, India; 
Helen C, wife of Dr. Robert Hazen, Thomaston, Con- 
necticut; William H., professor in the State Univer- 
sity, Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Lorin Henry, student 

[510] 



Biographical Sketches 

in Hartford Theological Seminary; Beryl F., teacher 
in the Syrian Protestant College, Beirut, Syria; Allen 
Hazen, of the class of 1912 at Yale College. 

William Morris Kincaid was born in Utica, New 
York, January 16, 1850. His parents were George 
and Elisabeth L. (Parshall) Kincaid, and he was one 
of six children, there being five sons and one daughter. 
His grandparents were George and Margaret (Cul- 
bertson) Kincaid, and Israel and Elisabeth (Tylee) 
Parshall. His mother was of Huguenot extraction, 
an earnest Baptist Christian. On his father's side he 
was of Scotch ancestry and of Presbyterian traditions. 
The grandfather was born in Edinburgh and the 
grandmother in Inverness. They went first to Antrim, 
Ireland, where the father of the subject of this sketch 
was born, and whence they came to New York City in 
1825. The grandfather, Parshall, was a soldier in the 
Revolutionary War and also in the War of 1812. 

William Morris Kincaid pursued his preparatory 
studies in Utica Free Academy and entered Williams 
as a Sophomore in the fall of 1868. His name as given 
in the College Catalogue was William Morris John 
Kincaid. Among his classmates were James Robert 
Dunbar, Charles Huntoon Knight, George Edwin 
MacLean, Robert Wilson Patterson, Henry Tatlock, 
and William Rogers Terrett. In college Kincaid oc- 
cupied a prominent position. He was a member of the 
Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity; of the Philologian 
Society; and of the Lyceum of Natural History. He 
was also a member of the Boat Club ; of the Williams 
Gymnastic Organization; and of the Chess Club, of 
which he was one of the directors. He was a success- 
ful student, and was one of the speakers at Commence- 
ment, when he gave a dissertation on the subject "He 
thinks too much; such men are dangerous. " 

[511] 



Williams College and Missions 

After graduation he entered the Baptist Theologi- 
cal Seminary, at Rochester, New York, where he was 
graduated in 1874. He was ordained to the Baptist 
ministry on May 29 of the same year in the Tabernacle 
Baptist Church at Utica. His first pastorate was at 
the First Baptist Church in Cortland, New York, 
where he remained from August 1, 1874, till October 
1, 1877. From that date till March, 1881, he was pas- 
tor of the Second Baptist Church at Rondout, New 
York. He next became pastor of the First Baptist 
Church in San Francisco, California, where he re- 
mained until November, 1889. From December of 
that year till the following March he was without charge 
at Groton, Connecticut. At the latter date he united 
with the Presbyterian Church, and in March, 1891, 
he became pastor of Andrew Presbyterian Church in 
Minneapolis, Minnesota, having declined calls to a 
church in Harlem, New York, and to a Congregational 
church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. While in Min- 
neapolis a Gothic stone church was built in place of one 
of wood, and a great number of students from the uni- 
versity were attracted to his congregation. From Min- 
neapolis, where his pastorate continued for nine years, 
he was called to the Union Congregational Church at 
Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands. For nine years he ex- 
ercised a wide influence in the Islands, and resigned 
partly on account of the health of his wife and partly 
because of offence given to some of his congregation by 
his too independent speech. With the purpose of re- 
tiring from the ministry, he purchased a plantation in 
Virginia, but on Sunday, March 24, 1907, he received 
a call to the First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte, 
North Carolina, which call he accepted on March 24 
following. During this pastorate of nearly four years 
there were about 400 additions to the church. During 
much of the last year of this pastorate he had been in 

[512] 






Biographical Sketches 

declining health, and died in the Presbyterian Manse, 
in Charlotte, January 2, 1911. The remains were 
taken to Groton, Connecticut, and there buried. 

Dr. Kincaid was a man of superior natural gifts 
to which was added the refinement of generous culture. 
He was a preacher of great ability, and in all of the 
churches to which he ministered, all of them influential 
churches, he met with large success. The gospel which 
he preached was the gospel of hope and consolation and 
good cheer. In the latter years of his ministry he be- 
came more and more interested in the study of sociol- 
ogy, and felt that the Church should give more heed to 
applying the great principles of Christianity to the so- 
cial problems of the day. One who knew him has de- 
scribed as follows his manner in the pulpit: "In 
beginning the delivery of his sermon it was his wont to 
step to the right of the pulpit, and without manuscript 
or notes, to speak in a manner which impressed the 
hearer with the richness of his vocabulary, the fluency 
of his utterance, the retentiveness of his memory, and 
the earnestness of his desire to be a blessing to others 
and to promote the Lord's Kingdom." The Univer- 
sity of Chicago recognized his ability in appointing him 
as one of the preachers to the university. 

He was especially successful as a pastor, being par- 
ticularly happy in his ministrations to the sick and af- 
flicted. By his genial disposition, sympathetic nature, 
courtesy of bearing, and affability of manner, he 
impressed himself not only upon his own people, 
but upon the city and community in which he 
lived. 

In 1888 Williams conferred upon him the honorary 
degree of Master of Arts, and in 1904 the degree of 
Doctor of Divinity. 

Dr. Kincaid married first, on December 18, 1875, 
in Cortland, New York, Miss Emily M. Purinton, who 

[513] 



Williams College and Missions 

died April 13, 1877. A daughter by this marriage died 
in infancy. 

He married secondly, on March 20, 1882, at Santa 
Ana, California, Miss Ellen Douglas, of New Lon- 
don, Connecticut, daughter of A. T. and Delia 
(Latham) Douglas, granddaughter of Daniel and 
Delia (Denison) Douglas, and a descendant of William 
Latham, who came to America from England. By 
this marriage he had two daughters and two sons. One 
daughter and the two sons are living: Mrs. Arthur Har- 
ris Thompson; Archibald Douglas Kincaid; and Wil- 
liam Morris Kincaid, Jr. 

Mrs. Kincaid survived her husband and now re- 
sides in New York City. 

Other references to Dr. Kincaid' s character and 
work will be found in the appended letter which was 
prepared by his classmate and friend, Chancellor 
George E. MacLean, LL.D. 

London, England, November 27, 1911. 
My Dear Professor Hewitt: 

Your letter of inquiry of November 1 has followed 
me here. 

I count it a privilege to aid you with reference to 
any biographical sketch of my beloved classmate and 
roommate the Rev. William M. Kincaid, D.D. 

He entered Williams with advanced standing from 
Utica Academy at the beginning of Sophomore year. 
He joined D. K. E. and he and I became roommates — 
first in the Bardwell house, standing where the Mark 
Hopkins Hall now is, and second in Prof. Phillips' 
house, then taken over b}^ the D. K. E.'s and standing 
where Morgan Hall does. 

I had joined my home church in Great Barrington 
in September, 1868. Kincaid was not a professed 
Christian when he entered. He was the first person I 

[ 514] 



Biographical Sketches 

ever approached with reference to personal religion. I 
shall never forget the trepidation with which I went to 
his room, before we came together as roommates, or the 
earnestness with which he responded when I broached 
the subject of religion and we prayed together. He 
joined, I think, that same year the Dutch Reformed 
Church at his home in Utica. His father was of 
Scotch Presbyterian descent and a railroad conductor 
on the Xew York Central Railroad. He was a popular 
man of strong physique and character. 

His mother was a descendant of the French Hugue- 
nots and a devout Baptist. She often sent us boxes of 
dainties, which Kincaid delighted to share with the boys. 
He was an adept as a cook and frequently gave spreads. 
His refined and feminine nature made him the house- 
keeper among us. He was much given to reading and 
early had a wide acquaintance with standard authors 
and a delight in gathering rare and elegantly bound 
works. 

Upon graduation, through the influence of his 
mother he entered the Baptist Theological Seminary 
at Rochester, Xew York, and entered the Baptist 
ministry. 

His first pastorate, I believe, was in Cortland, Xew 
York, where he lost his first wife. 

His second pastorate was in Rondout, Xew York, 
where he married a young lady in his congregation, — 
Miss Ellen Douglas, who survives him. They had 
four children, Anna, Douglas, Mary and William. 
They lost Mary — a beautiful child of three or four 
years of age, whose memory was ever very precious to 
him. 

From Rondout he was called to the pastorate of the 
First Baptist Church of San Francisco — the leading 
church of that denomination on the coast. 

He had a most successful ministry of some nine 

[515] 



Williams College and Missions 

years there. He came to have conscientious scruples 
about remaining in the Baptist Church, as he had out- 
grown the belief in close communion, and had come to 
a belief in infant baptism. In the latter point doubt- 
less, with his affectionate nature, he was constrained by 
the feeling that his children should be baptized. He 
therefore, contrary to the wish of his congregation, 
resigned. 

He immediately had three opportunities of settle- 
ment — one in Harlem, New York — one in a Congrega- 
tional church, Sioux Falls, South Dakota — and one in 
Andrew Presbyterian Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

He accepted the latter. During his nine years' pas- 
torate there a Gothic stone edifice succeeded one of 
wood, and he attracted a great number of students from 
the University of Minnesota to his congregation. 

His Bible class was largely attended. His ser- 
mons, delivered without manuscript, were always of a 
high level, with pith and point, and many literary 
illustrations. 

Theologically he was broad, without indifTerentism, 
and always spiritual. 

He was called from Minneapolis to the Union 
Church in Honolulu — the great mother-church of the 
Hawaiian Islands. 

Among his predecessors had been Beckwith, also 
a Williams man. 

After being virtually the Bishop of the Hawaiian 
Islands for nine years he resigned, the climate not 
agreeing with his wife, and his plain speaking at a Mo- 
honk Conference concerning political and economic 
conditions in the Islands having given offence to some 
of the rich sugar planters in his congregation. 

He purchased a plantation in Virginia with the 
thought of retiring. 

He was soon called to the First Presbyterian 

[516] 



Biographical Sketches 

Church of Charlotte, North Carolina, — a leading church 
of the South, — which increased from a membership of 
700 to 1000 in his short pastorate of three years termi- 
nated by his death, January 2, 1911. It was my privi- 
lege to visit him there just a year ago, and to know of 
the great work he was doing and the high esteem in 
which he was held. The ripeness of his scholarship and 
pulpit powers, supplemented by his indefatigable pas- 
toral work, so consonant with his sympathetic nature, 
made him as greatly beloved as he was respected. The 
dominant note of his character was affection. His every 
instinct was refined and artistic. He belonged there- 
fore to the prophetic order of preachers. With a 
slightly different early environment he would have been 
an artist. As it was, he deeply enjoyed art, was fond 
of music and a leader in the singing of his congregation. 
He was a connoisseur in house-furnishing — so that his 
house became the house beautiful, adorned by works of 
art and rare specimens of antique furniture. 

His home was the setting for the gem he prized 
above all earthly things — his wife. She was just fitted 
to be his helpmeet. 

You will notice that Kincaid was not a missionary, 
in the ordinary sense, to the Sandwich Islands. 

The address of his widow is Mrs. William M. Kin- 
caid, Hatton Grange, Hatton, Albemarle County, Vir- 
ginia. She doubtless will be able to give you exact 
dates and any details you desire. His daughter Anna 
is also at Hatton Grange, the wife of Arthur Thomp- 
son, sometime a student in the class of 1907 at Wil- 
liams, and a brother of Mr. Thompson, a member of 
the class of 1913, 1 think, at Williams — a son of Charles 
R. Thompson of Minneapolis. 

Mrs. MacLean and I join in sincere regards to you 
and yours. Faithfully yours, 

George E. MacLean. 

[517] 



Williams College and Missions 

CLASS OF 1872 

George Alfred Ford, son of Rev. Joshua Edwards 
and Mary (Perry) Ford, and grandson of George W. 
and Mary (Edwards) Ford, was born at Aleppo, 
Syria, May 31, 1851. His great-grandfather, on his 
father's side, Major Mahlon Ford, was an officer in the 
Revolutionary Army. His grandfather on his moth- 
er's side was Dr. Alfred Perry, of Williamstown, and 
formerly of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, a graduate of 
this college in the class of 1803. His father, Rev. 
Joshua Edwards Ford, was graduated from this col- 
lege in 1844, and was for nearly twenty years a mis- 
sionary in Syria. 

The son entered college as a Freshman and became 
a prominent member of his class. He was a member 
of the Philotechnian and Mills Theological Societies, in 
each of which he held at different times the offices of 
president, secretary, and treasurer. He was also a 
member of the Lyceum of Natural History ; and of the 
Williams Gymnastic Organization. He received an 
honorable mention in French; was a speaker at the 
Moonlight Exhibition of his Junior year; was one of 
the disputants for the Philotechnian Society at the 
Adelphic Union Debate, July 24, 1872; was a mem- 
ber of the College Choir ; and was chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Songs for the Class Day. At Commence- 
ment he had a dissertation on a subject which had been 
treated by his father at graduation, twenty-eight years 
before: "Make Haste Slowly." 

After graduation he spent a year in Sabbath-school 
and church work at the White Oaks Mission, which had 
been developed by Professor Albert Hopkins, and 
which had been cared for by him till the time of his 
death in 1872. Besides caring for the religious work, 
Mr. Ford taught the district school in that place. He 
then pursued the full three years' course in theology at 

[518] 



Biographical Sketches 

Union Seminary, where he was graduated in 1876. On 
November 13 of the same year, he was ordained by 
Presbytery, at Hudson, New York, having already as- 
sumed charge of a Presbyterian church in Ramapo, 
Rockland County, Xew York, where he remained four 
years, spending one winter during that time in post- 
graduate studies at the seminary. In May, 1880, he 
sailed from Xew York, under appointment of the Pres- 
byterian Board of Foreign Missions, to Syria, his na- 
tive land, having permission from the Board to spend 
some months in Great Britain and on the Continent at 
his own expense. 

Arriving in Syria on January 6, 1881, he was im- 
mediately assigned to the station at Sidon, where he 
became the colleague of Rev. William K. Eddy 
(Princeton 1875), who had been his companion in 
childhood in the same city, where their fathers, both 
Williams College graduates, had been associated as 
missionaries previous to 1865. Mr. Ford was con- 
nected with the regular work in Sidon from January, 
1881 to 1894*, with the exception of a year or more in 
Zaleh, Mount Lebanon, and some months in Beirut, 
when called to fill vacancies caused by death or absence 
of other missionaries. Much of his work here con- 
sisted in itinerating and making visits to out-stations. 
As much time has thus to be spent in the saddle, Sidon 
has been called the "Horseback Station." 

Mr. Ford interested himself greatly in the estab- 
lishment of an industrial department in the training 
schools of the mission, and it was largely due to his in- 
fluence that in 1895 industrial training was begun as 
an integral part of Sidon Academy, now Gerard Insti- 
tute. He was for a time superintendent of this insti- 
tution. At present he is Professor of Xew Testament 
Theology and the Life of Christ in Beirut Theological 
Seminary. 

[519] 



Williams College and Missions 

In an exceedingly interesting article on "Evangeli- 
cal Missions in Syria," published in the Missionary Re- 
view of the World for 1893, Dr. Ford has given the 
following description of the Syrian people: "With some 
very serious and trying faults, the Syrians are a gifted 
race. They are keen, quick, calculating, versatile, 
thrifty, kind-hearted, and hospitable, ready in speech, 
and with special aptitude for languages. Nature has 
done her part toward fitting them to be the missionary 
leaven among the scores of millions who may be reached 
by Arabic. Providence also has been paving the way 
by the remarkable revival among them of education and 
civilization, and now by their new passion for emigra- 
tion, that has planted temporarily not less than 30,000 
of them in Australia, Brazil, and the United States. 
When grace shall have taken strong possession, is it too 
much to expect that some happy day, in the not very 
distant future, they will fill in Oriental missions some 
such place as their Phoenician ancestors did in 
commerce?" 

Dr. Ford was present at the Centennial Celebra- 
tion of his Alma Mater in October, 1893, and delivered 
one of the addresses given on that occasion at a Con- 
ference on "The Relation of the Modern College to 
Applied Christianity." 

In 1894 he received from Williams the honorary 
degree of Doctor of Divinity. 

He was married in 1906 to Miss Katherine Booth, 
daughter of William A. Booth, Esq., of New York. 



CLASS OF 1873 
Charles William Calhoun, only son of Rev. 
Simeon Howard Calhoun, D.D. (Williams 1829), and 
Emily P. (Raynolds) Calhoun, and grandson of An- 
drew and Martha (Chamberlin) Calhoun, was born in 

[ 520] 






Biographical Sketches 

Abeih, Syria, February 2, 1850. His father was the 
venerable and eminent missionary in Syria, who devoted 
his life to the mission seminary at Abeih, on Mount 
Lebanon. His mother belonged to a missionary fam- 
ily, being sister to Rev. George Cook Raynolds, M.D., 
D.D. (Williams 1881), missionary in Van, Eastern 
Turkey. She was also a relative of Rev. Dr. Richard 
Salter Storrs (Williams 1807), of Braintree, Massa- 
chusetts, and at the time of her marriage had been seven 
years a resident in his family. In his grandparents 
were united the Scotch and the Protestant Irish ele- 
ments, and from both he inherited great strength of 
character. The family to which the father belonged was 
a remarkable one. All of the several sons became men 
of influence, and some achieved high positions in the 
councils of the nation. 

The son fitted for college with the Rev. Nathaniel 
Herrick Griffin, D.D. (Williams 1834), in Williams- 
town, Massachusetts. In college he was a member of 
the Philotechnian Society and the Mills Theological So- 
ciety; also of the Lyceum of Natural History, of which 
he was a vice-president, secretary and, for one year, the 
curator; and was also director of the departments of 
conchology and ornithology in the same society. He 
was a member of the Williams Gymnastic Organiza- 
tion. On Class Day he was the Historian. 

After graduation, he went to Syria, seeing some- 
thing of Europe on the way. After studying some the- 
ology with his father, he was for two years tutor in the 
Syrian Protestant College. After travelling through 
Palestine, visiting Damascus and Egypt, he returned 
to the United States and pursued a course of theology 
at Union Seminary, graduating in 1878. He was or- 
dained in Williamstown, May 7, 1879, Dr. Hopkins 
preaching the sermon, President Chadbourne giving 
the charge, and his former college and seminary room- 

[521] 



Williams College and Missions 

mate and subsequent co-laborer, Rev. George A. Ford, 
D.D. (Williams 1872) , giving the right hand of fellow- 
ship. In 1879, he was graduated at the University 
Medical School in New York City, having completed 
his term of service in Flatbush Hospital. In August of 
the same year he sailed as a missionary of the Presbyte- 
rian Board, under appointment as a missionary physi- 
cian, for Tripoli, Syria. Rarely has one gone forth to 
labor in a foreign field more thoroughly equipped for 
his work than he, combining, as he did, in his person so 
rich an inheritance of character from ancestry, so inti- 
mate a knowledge of the field, and so broad and fine a 
culture of the mind. Before he had been in Syria a year 
he received but refused the flattering offer of the pro- 
fessorship of materia medica, hygiene, and zoology in 
the Syrian Protestant College. Subsequently occupy- 
ing for a short time the chair of pathology, he was 
urged to remain as professor of that subject. This he 
also declined, as he did subsequently the offer of the 
chair of obstetrics in the same institution. He was 
eager to be among the people, ministering to the needs 
both of their bodies and their souls. Furthermore, he 
felt that his father on entering into his own rest ex- 
pected that this only son would carry forward the great 
work the father had so nobly begun. His knowledge of 
the Arabic language and acquaintance with the nature 
of the Syrian people gave him ready access to their 
hearts and homes. Though for a time he met with petty 
persecutions at the hands of the local Turkish authori- 
ties, at the instigation of a rival native physician, he was 
eminently active and useful, performing many difficult 
surgical operations. He paid some attention to leprosy 
also, and at the time of his death he had published one 
paper on the subject, and was preparing a series of such 
papers, with photographs. But not all of his time was 
taken up with the practice of medicine. In a letter writ- 

[ 522 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

ten to his college classmates but a few weeks before his 
death he speaks of his varied duties. "My time," he 
writes, "is taken up in the study of Arabic, in calling on 
the people in addition to seeing patients from two to 
six, and especially in making tours into the interior, 
using my medical and surgical skill as a means of reach- 
ing the hearts of the people. I treat every year over 
2000 patients, and am known as the 'American Doc- 
tor, the Father of the Poor.' But the greater part of 
my time is taken up in preaching, in holding meetings 
in the evenings in villages, in examining schools which 
are scattered throughout the land, and in conversation 
with individuals on the all-important subject of the sal- 
vation of their souls. I am enabled to reach the be- 
nighted Catholics and Moslems of almost every village 
and town, both large and small." It was in an extended 
tour made through Northern Syria that he contracted a 
malarial fever, which, with paralysis of the heart, 
brought his useful life to a close at the early age of 33. 
He died at Schweifat, Mt. Lebanon, June 22, 1883. 
The funeral was attended at Schweifat by a great com- 
pany from the surrounding country, and the next day 
the remains were carried to Beirut, where, after further 
services in the church, they were buried. He was un- 
married; he left to mourn his untimely loss a widowed 
mother and three sisters, in whose great sorrow thou- 
sands in this land shared. 

"He was beloved by his associates and was ardently 
devoted to the missionary work, having declined a posi- 
tion in Beirut College. He had inherited from his 
father, the patriarch of the Lebanons, qualities which 
peculiarly fitted him for his work, — rare amiability, 
deep devotion, absolute intrepidity, untiring patience, 
and a mind gifted with that statesmanship of missions 
which is building an empire for Christ in the Eastern 
Mediterranean countries." 

[ 523 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

Dr. H. H. Jessup wrote of him: "He was genial, 
courteous, full of good humor, a most skillful surgeon, 
familiar with the Arabic colloquial from his childhood. 
These traits made him very popular. He could sleep 
anywhere, on a mat or on the ground, and eat the coars- 
est and most unpalatable Arab food with a relish. 

"His consistent Christian walk and self-denying 
labors exemplified the religion he professed and 
preached." 

The following extract is from a minute passed by the 
class of 1873 at their Decennial Reunion and addressed 
to the mother and sisters: "Calhoun loved us all, and we 
all loved him ; no name was more closely connected with 
the life of our class, as a class, nor was any individuality 
more strongly marked than his. The class of '73 would 
have been a different class without Calhoun. His over- 
flowing spirits, his keen relish of a joke, his enthusiastic 
loyalty to his class, — these were characteristics which 
even a superficial acquaintance could not but reveal, 
and which made him always and everywhere a favorite. 
But those who knew him best saw in him other and bet- 
ter things than these. A simple and childlike faith, a 
love that could not do too much for his friends, and a 
genuine enthusiasm in his chosen pursuits, — these 
things already gave promise of the devoted life so sud- 
denly cut off." 

CLASS OF 1874 
James Edward Tracy, the youngest of the six chil- 
dren of Rev. William Tracy, D.D., and Emily Frances 
(Travelli) Tracy, was born July 4, 1850, at Pasumalai, 
Madura District, India. He was the son of missionary 
parents and was born on missionary ground. He was 
the grandson of David and Susannah (Capron) Tracy. 
David Tracy, who was born in Lisbon, Connecticut, 
was for eleven years Inspector of Customs for the port 

[524] 



Biographical Sketches 

of Norwich, Connecticut, and a member of the State 
Legislature in 1824. 

The family traces its descent from Lieutenant 
Thomas Tracy, who emigrated from England and set- 
tled in Norwich, 1660. The father, William Tracy, 
who was born in Norwich, and was the fourth son of ten 
children, at first learned the trade of a tinsmith, which 
trade he followed for three years in Philadelphia, before 
studying for the ministry. He was a member of the 
class of 1833 in this college for about three years but 
did not graduate, and studied theology at Andover and 
Princeton Seminaries. He was for over forty years a 
missionary in India, being stationed successively at Tir- 
umangalam, Pasumalai, and Tirupuvanam, where he 
died, November 28, 1877. He achieved large success 
as a teacher, preacher, and translator. Soon after go- 
ing to Tirumangalam he opened there a boarding-school 
which developed into a seminary, which, being subse- 
quently removed to Pasumalai, grew into a college. 
He received the honorary degree of Master of Arts 
from this college in 1853, and the degree of Doctor of 
Divinity from the University of Western Pennsylva- 
nia, in 1868. His three sons were graduated at this 
college. His marked characteristics were singleness of 
purpose, high ideals, patience, gentleness of manner. 

In this missionary home, where the home life was 
somewhat isolated, so far as childhood companions were 
concerned, but full of tenderest love, James Tracy 
spent his boyhood till he was thirteen years of age. He 
fitted for college in Norwich Free Academy, and en- 
tered Williams with the class at the beginning of Fresh- 
man year. He became a member of the Mills Young 
Men's Christian Association, of which he was one of the 
presidents and a member of the Board of Directors, 
and in which he was a member of the committee on 
Sunday-school work. He was a member of the Philolo- 

[525 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

gian Society; of the Lyceum of Natural History; of 
the Dramatic Club ; of the Williams Gymnastic Organ- 
ization; and of the Boxing Club. He was an editor 
of the Williams Review, and one of the secretaries of 
his class. He took the first Sophomore prize at a Rhe- 
torical Exhibition and had an Oration for an appoint- 
ment at Commencement, when he gave an address on 
the subject "Intensity." 

After graduation, he studied theology at Union 
Park Seminary, Chicago, and at Union Seminary, New 
York City, graduating from the latter in 1877. He 
was ordained as an evangelist June 27 of the same year. 

On September 1 of that year, he and his wife, under 
the appointment of the American Board, sailed from 
New York for Liverpool, on the way to join the Ma- 
dura Mission, India. His going to India was a return 
to scenes familiar to his boyhood, and he had the rare 
joy of being welcomed to his work by his venerable 
parents, who, after two score years of faithful service, 
were ready to pass over some of their labors to other 
hands. He was located at first at Tirupuvanam. Be- 
ing "to the manner born," familiar with the language 
and with the characteristics and customs of the people, 
he had the great advantage of beginning efficient work 
at once. This work consisted largely of preaching and 
superintending native preachers and teachers, along 
with some literary work. But when he arrived at his 
station the famine was at its height, and the work of 
relief distribution was no light additional burden. His 
letters in the Missionary Herald, from the first, speak 
of religious interest and success. After Hive years of 
service he could report 455 native Christians in his field 
in place of 318, and 84 church members instead of 69, 
while the amount contributed by native Christians had 
increased from 59 rupees to over 200. 

At the beginning of 1883 he removed from Tirupu- 

[ 526] 



Biographical Sketches 

vanam to Tirumangalam, but retained the superintend- 
ence of the former place also. The letters from this new 
station speak of accessions to the churches, increased 
offerings, and erection of new buildings for worship. 
The following extract is from Mr. Tracy's account of 
the observance of a New Year's day at Tirupuvanam: 
"The morning was occupied in 'receiving' the people's 
greetings, group by group, saying a few words either 
of encouragement or comfort to each group. One new 
congregation was represented, having been gathered 
during the past year. After all had presented their 
wreaths of flowers and fragrant limes, and been dis- 
missed, the various schools came in their order, and 
after singing a song and wishing us a happy New Year, 
they, too, withdrew. 

"The event of the day — as it has been from the first 
— was the service of offerings at noon. Each family 
brought or sent its little kaliam, or earthen box of offer- 
ings for the year; and some brought, in addition, arti- 
cles for sale, such as fowls, palm-leaf fans, mats, etc., 
the proceeds of which were to be added as offerings. 
This is a scene in which I always take particular pleas- 
ure, because it shows the fruits of real self-denial on the 
part of very poor people. The whole sum of the 
offerings was larger than that of the last year, and there 
has been a constant increase from year to year. The 
total of seventy-five rupees — no mean offering when 
thoughtfully weighed — shows that there has been no 
backward going and is promise of still further 
progress." 

In 1885-86, owing to the absence of Rev. W. S. 
Howland, another large station was left to his care, 
and the added anxiety, together with worry about finan- 
cial matters, injured Mr. Tracy's health, and though 
he continued his work for another two years, he then, by 
medical advice, came to this country for a change. 

[527] 



Williams College and Missions 

Some idea of the extent of the work which he superin- 
tended may be gathered from the report sent to the 
Board in 1888 to the effect that in the previous year 
forty itineraries had been undertaken and that over 
138,000 had heard the gospel message. During six 
months of that year twenty-four catechists had 
preached in various places to over 100,000 people. 

After his return to India in 1891, he was located 
at Periakulam, where he met with encouraging success, 
though greatly hampered at times by the reduction in 
appropriations made by the Board. In 1902 he and 
his wife again visited this country, and about 1905 he 
began doing some work at Kodikanal, some sixty miles 
northwest of Madura, and is at present located there. 
It is hoped that Dr. and Mrs. Tracy have before them 
many years of happy, useful service. 

Mr. Tracy received the honorary degree of Doctor 
of Divinity from this college in 1898. 

He married, August 1, 1877, Miss Fanny Sabin 
Woodcock of South Williamstown, Massachusetts. 
There were born to them two children: Christine Ma- 
bel Tracy, a teacher, who died in Annville, Kentucky, 
April 28, 1912; and Royal D. Tracy, a professional 
actor. 

Besides the letters which have appeared in the Mis- 
sionary Herald, Dr. Tracy has published various 
pamphlets on Indian Numismatics, and occasional 
lectures. 

CLASS OF 1875 
Louis Agassiz Gould, son of Dr. A. A. Gould, was 
born in Boston, Massachusetts, June 4, 1855. The 
father was one of the most prominent of American 
zoologists and was a joint author with Agassiz of one 
of the best zoological text-books. He also published a 
treatise on the Shells of the Wilkes Expedition. 

[ 628 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

The son obtained his preliminary education in Bos- 
ton. When he entered college in 1871, his father being 
dead, the family removed to Williamstown. In col- 
lege he was a member of the Philotechnian Society; 
received the first Benedict prize in French, and one of 
the Junior prizes at the Rhetorical Exhibition; was a 
member of the Senior Expedition to Newport and 
Nahant under the guidance of Professor Tenney; was 
a member of the Club Crew Rowing Association and of 
the Class Nine; was general superintendent of the Wil- 
liams Telegraph Association; at the Class Day Exer- 
cises he was Prophet on Prophet; and was one of the 
speakers at Commencement, his appointment being a 
Dissertation, and the subject of his address, "The Se- 
cret of Success." 

After graduation he studied theology at the Roch- 
ester Theological Seminary, from which he was grad- 
uated in 1879. He was ordained at Holley, New York, 
on June 5 of the same year, and was pastor there from 
that date until January, 1884. From June, 1885, to 
December, 1886, he was associate pastor at Fall River, 
Massachusetts. He then received an appointment as a 
missionary to China from the American Baptist For- 
eign Mission Society. From August, 1888, to August, 
1889, he was located at Ningpo, and from the latter 
date to October, 1893, he was at Shaohing. On account 
of his own health and especially that of his wife, who 
completely broke down in 1893, he was obliged to relin- 
quish his missionary work in China and return to this 
country. From October, 1893, to May, 1894, he was 
acting pastor at Racine, Wisconsin; from June, 1894, 
to July, 1897, he was pastor at Highland Park, Illinois; 
and from January, 1898, to 1901 he was pastor at 
Shelby ville, Indiana. From the latter date to 1906, he 
held pastorates at Santa Monica, Occidental Heights, 
Downey, and in other churches in Los Angeles. 

[ 529 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

In the Class History issued in 1895, he was reported 
as married and as having two daughters, aged five and 
two years respectively. He resides in Los Angeles, 
California. 

Isaac Heyer Polhemus, son of Abraham and 
Eliza B. (Heyer) Polhemus, was born in Hopewell, 
New York, March 3, 1853. He is the grandson of 
Abraham and Cornelia (Suydam) Polhemus and of 
Isaac and Jane (Suydam) Heyer. The immigrant an- 
cestor was the Rev. Johannes Theodorus Polhemus, of 
Holland, who came to "New Amsterdam" in 1654, from 
Itamarca, Brazil, where he had been a missionary. 
Among the more distinguished ancestors of Mr. Pol- 
hemus was Eleazar Polhemus, of whom the "Annals of 
Newtown" states that he was "a learned jurist, Burgo- 
master at Antwerp, Holland, 1310. For a long period 
this name has held a distinguished place among officers 
of state and men of letters in the Netherlands." 

Abraham Polhemus, the father of the subject of this 
sketch, was a clergyman, whose marked characteristics 
were courtesy, earnestness, devotion to God and to his 
family. 

The early life of Isaac Heyer Polhemus, from his 
fifth to his fifteenth year of age, was spent in Newark, 
New Jersey, and his early education was obtained in 
the academy at that place. He fitted for college at 
Holbrook's Military School at Sing Sing, New York, 
and entered college as a Freshman in 1871. He was a 
successful student and a prominent member of his class, 
being a member of several college organizations and 
engaging in various college activities. He was a mem- 
ber of the Delta Psi Fraternity; of the Mills Young 
Men's Christian Association, of which he was one of the 
directors, and in which he was one of the committee on 
Sunday-school work; of the Lyceum of Natural His- 

[ 530] 



Biographical Sketches 

tory, in which he was for a time treasurer, and under the 
auspices of which he was one of the Senior Expedition 
to Newport and Nahant under the direction of Pro- 
fessor Tenney; he was a member of the Glee Club; of 
the Class Quartette; the College Choir; of the Class 
Baseball Nine; of the Football Team; of the Class 
Crew, in which he was stroke ; and of the Skating Club, 
in which he was a director. He was for a time president 
of his class; a member of the Shakespere Club; editor 
of the Williams Review and of the Williams Athe- 
naeum, being secretary of the board of editors; assist- 
ant librarian in the College Library; received a prize 
for excellence in French; represented the college twice 
at Intercollegiate Conventions in New York; was 
Sophomore Orator at a Rhetorical Exhibition, and 
speaker at the Senior Rhetorical Exhibition, his subject 
being "Conventionality"; read a poem at the Class Sup- 
per; was President of the Class Day Exercises; and 
was one of the speakers at Commencement, the subject 
of his oration being "The Way of the World." 

The first year after graduation was spent in travel 
in England and on the Continent, after which he be- 
came a member of Union Theological Seminary, from 
which he was graduated in 1879. On June 18 of the 
same year he was ordained by the Reformed Church in 
Newark, New Jersey, and in the following October he 
was appointed missionary to Mexico under the For- 
eign Board of the Presbyterian Church, being settled 
for a year in Zacatecas, and another year in Mexico 
City. Owing to the severe illness of his wife, and the 
failure of his own health caused by the great trials of the 
mission, he was obliged to relinquish his mission work 
and return home. 

During the years 1883-1894, he had charge of the 
mission work of the Second Presbyterian Church of 
Newark, New Jersey. In this time he organized and 

[531] 



Williams College and Missions 

became the first pastor of the Fewsmith Memorial 
Church. Of his mission work in Newark, the class sec- 
retary wrote that Mr. Polhemus started "his work in a 
single room, building the next year a chapel seating 
800, and after a few years a church seating 900. It was 
an industrial church, with gymnasium, day nursery, and 
other agencies usually found in a living church." 

Compelled by reason of health to seek a warmer 
climate, he received an appointment of the Home 
Board of the Presbyterian Church to Biceville, Swan- 
nanoa, and Asheville, North Carolina, among the 
mountaineers, which position he held during the period 
1895-97. From April of the latter year to March, 
1901, he was in charge of the Young People's Associa- 
tion House of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, 
New York City. In the spring of the latter year he 
was recalled by the Home Board of the Presbyterian 
Church to work at Marshall, North Carolina, remain- 
ing there until March, 1903, when he received the ap- 
pointment of the New York City Mission to become 
pastor of the Broome Street Tabernacle during the 
year of absence of Rev. Dr. John B. Devins. In Sep- 
tember, 1904, he was called to Brooklyn, New York, to 
"The Branch" of the Tompkins Avenue Congrega- 
tional Church. While keeping his membership in the 
New York Presbytery, he held this position until Sep- 
tember, 1908, when he was called to his present pastor- 
ate over the First Presbyterian Church at Unadilla, 
New York. 

From the little that can be gleaned from the history 
of the class of 1875, it is quite evident that Mr. Polhe- 
mus has been a most laborious and efficient worker in 
the various positions he has occupied, and that, as the 
secretary of the class records, his wife has been in these 
labors his constant help. 

Mr. Polhemus was married October 2, 1879, to Sa- 

[532] 



Biographical Sketches 

rah, daughter of Bartholomew and Sarah (Wyles) 
Brown, of New York. 

Of five children born to them two daughters are liv- 
ing: Mrs. Cornelia C. Burrell, wife of D. H. Burrell, 
Jr., of Little Falls, New York; and Miss Sarah Heyer 
Polhemus. 

CLASS OF 1876 
Lyndon Smith Crawford was born in North Ad- 
ams, Massachusetts, March 24, 1852. He was the son 
of Rev. Robert and Ellen Maria (Griffin) Crawford, 
and the grandson of James and Jane (Kennedy) 
Crawford, and of Edward Dorr and Frances (Hun- 
tington) Griffin. On his father's side he was of Scot- 
tish descent, while on the mother's side he traces his 
ancestry to England and Wales. His grandfather, 
James Crawford, emigrated from Paisley, Scotland, to 
Lanark, Canada West, in 1821. Jasper Griffin, an- 
other ancestor, came from Wales and England and 
settled in Southold, Long Island, in (or about) 1636. 
Among his more distinguished ancestors was his grand- 
father, Rev. Edward Dorr Griffin, D.D., pastor of the 
First Presbyterian Church and, subsequently, of the 
Second Presbyterian Church, in Newark, New Jersey, 
Professor of Pulpit Eloquence in Andover Theological 
Seminary, pastor of Park Street Church, Boston, and 
President of Williams College from 1821 to 1836. The 
profession of the ministry appears often in the history 
of the family. The oldest sister of Mr. Crawford mar- 
ried Rev. Thomas A. Emerson (Yale 1863), and in 
doing so was the fourth minister's daughter, in the reg- 
ular line of descent, to marry a minister. That is to 
say, Mr. Crawford's sister, mother, grandmother, and 
great-grandmother married ministers. And these min- 
isterial husbands were pastors of Congregational 
churches in Massachusetts or Connecticut. Rev. Eben- 

[ 533 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

ezer Devotion, who was a minister in Suffield, Connect- 
icut, from 1710 to 1741, the grandfather of Mr. 
Crawford's great-grandmother Huntington, was a 
graduate of Harvard. Since then, with the exception 
of Mr. Crawford's father, his ministerial ancestors have 
been graduates of Yale. 

Rev. Robert Crawford (Williams 1836), the father 
of the subject of this sketch, was born in Paisley, Scot- 
land, and emigrated from there with his father to Can- 
ada West, from which he came, in 1826, to Hoosick 
Falls, New York, and thence to Bennington, Vermont. 
Dr. Lyndon Crawford possesses two interesting heir- 
looms which have fallen to his lot ; the one a little Bible 
which always stood on President Griffin's desk in Wil- 
liamstown, as previously it had stood in his study in 
Newark and in Boston, well worn and full of marks 
and annotations; the other also a Bible, which tells the 
story of the religious training of his father, and in 
which, in this Scotch father's handwriting, is the record : 
"My dear mother gave me this book on my leaving our 
Canada log-house. I have carried it in the pack on my 
back, as I walked many miles" etc. Robert Crawford 
was a man of more than usual strength of character and, 
both in the godly weaver's home in Paisley and in the 
pioneer's home in Canada, he had been inured to toil. 
He obtained his preparation for college by studying 
nights while working in the cotton mills of Hoosick 
Falls and Bennington by days willing to enter college 
at the age of twenty-eight rather than to pursue a short 
cut into the ministry. That he was a superior scholar 
is evidenced by the fact that he was tutor in his Alma 
Mater in 1838-39. He was a man of broad interests. 
While he was an able preacher and faithful pastor, re- 
ceiving from Jefferson College the honorary degree of 
Doctor of Divinity, he was for one session a member of 
the Massachusetts Senate and was president of the 

[ 534 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

board of trustees of Deerfield Academy for more than 
twenty years. In a memorial service held at North Ad- 
ams, Massachusetts, after his death, the church re- 
corded among other minutes: "He was an ever-faithful 
teacher and guide to the seeker after truth, and his own 
gentle and blameless life made him an exemplar of the 
gospel of peace and righteousness which he taught." 
Such were some of the characteristics of Robert Craw- 
ford as shown in his more public capacity. The home 
of which he was the head was almost ideal in its habits 
and virtues. The children born into such a home were 
reared in the enjoyment of a genuine New England 
Christian life. By the regularity of family worship, by 
precept and example they were taught that religion is a 
life and not mere theory. There was plenty of work to 
train in habits of industry and thrift, in the house, the 
barn, the garden, the home lot, and with it a plenty 
of fun and good cheer. Papers, magazines, books, new 
and old, pictures, and music made a home of culture. 
To speak evil of no one and to treat all guests with 
equal courtesy were some of the lessons in conduct. 
Such were some of the influences of home life enjoyed 
in his youth by Lyndon Crawford, and it is not strange 
that, as he states, from childhood he felt an inward call 
to Christian service, an inward feeling that was deep- 
ened by the fact that his parents seemed to love the 
kingdom of God better than anything else. 

Mr. Crawford prepared for college at the Deerfield 
Academy and High School, and at Power's Institute, 
Bernardston, Massachusetts. Probably he did not hesi- 
tate about the choice of a college. His father and 
brother had been graduated at Williams, and his grand- 
father had been for fifteen years its President. He en- 
tered college as a Freshman in 1872. In college he was 
a member of the Mills Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion; of the Lyceum of Natural History, of which he 

[ 535 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

was for a time secretary and again treasurer, and in 
which he was a director of the departments of botany 
and dendrology ; of the Philotechnian Society, of which 
he was for a time treasurer, and for a time vice-presi- 
dent; and, those being the days of boating, he was a 
member of his Class Crew. It is also recorded of him 
that on one occasion he won the hurdle race. At the 
Class Day exercises he was the Prophet on Prophet. 

After graduation he entered the Hartford Theolog- 
ical Seminary, from which he was graduated in 1879. 
On September 27 of the same year he and his wife 
sailed from New York, under appointment of the 
American Board, to join the Western Turkey Mis- 
sion. At the same time sailed for Turkey Rev. Charles 
S, Sanders, a son of Rev. Marshall Danforth Sanders 
(Williams 1846), missionary to Ceylon. Mr. and Mrs. 
Crawford arrived at Manissa, their station, which is 
about forty miles north of Smyrna, October 30. 

One of his first letters to the Missionary Herald is 
dated April 6, 1880, from Aidin, about 100 miles south- 
east from Smyrna, and explains that he is staying there 
to learn Greek. "There is here," he writes, "a very fine 
Greek school and in most all the cities about here Greek 
is the household language of most of the Greeks, and is 
becoming so more and more. I go to the school every 
day, and sit and hear the recitations, and so accustom 
myself to the sound of the language, and then after 
school I spend an hour and a half receiving instructions 
from two of the teachers, who take English in return.' ' 
In the same year he reports the bright opening of the 
schools of the mission. 

One of the efforts of the missionaries was to remove 
the errors of the Greek Church. In 1883 Mr. Crawford 
writes of the formation for this purpose of a Greek 
Evangelical Alliance, the members being most of the 
Protestants from both Manissa and Smyrna. The first 

[ 636 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

step of the Alliance was to form the first Evangelical 
church of Manissa, the church assuming the charge of 
the preaching in Manissa. 

After a period spent in America (1883-86), during 
which he was pastor of the Congregational Church in 
Topsfield, Massachusetts, he returned to his field, mak- 
ing Broosa his station, which is about sixty miles south- 
east of Constantinople. Much of Mr. Crawford's time 
was given to making tours among neighboring villages. 
The Missionary Herald contains an account of a tour 
made in November, 1889, with a magic lantern, to some 
villages near Lake Apollonia, lying twenty miles west 
of the station. It is a region of historic interest, there 
being in one of the ancient cities situated on the shore 
of the lake a building still standing which bears an in- 
scription of the Roman Emperor Trajan. Of the vil- 
lage and people, Mr. Crawford writes: "Along on the 
line of hills overlooking the lake are nine Greek vil- 
lages, each having from sixty to one hundred houses, 
and each village from three to ^.ve miles distant from 
the next. They are called 'Pistika Khoria' ('Faithful 
Villages'). When these villagers come to the market 
in Broosa they are recognized not only by their peculiar 
dress but by their form of expression. Old forms of 
Greek and 'Laconic replies' are always heard from 
them, for they are of Spartan origin. Their ancestors 
were brought from old Laconia nearly 200 years ago. 
We spent a night in ^ve of these 'Faithful Villages'; 
the Sabbath in Apollonia; one night in 'the City of the 
Sun,' and a night in each of the two Greek villages, 
Kouroukli and Amasi, nine and twelve miles from here, 
on the way to and from the lake." 

For several years past Dr. Crawford has been lo- 
cated at Trebizond on the Black Sea, 640 miles east of 
Constantinople. It is a city of over 50,000 inhabitants, 
made up of Mohammedans, Orthodox Greeks, Grego- 

[537] 



Williams College and Missions 

rian Armenians, Catholic Armenians, and Armenian 
and Greek Protestants. It is a city of great antiquity, 
being four years older than Rome and settled by Greeks 
from Miletus. The American Board began its work 
here in 1835, the Rev. T. P. Johnston being the first 
missionary sent there. The following is Mr. Johnston's 
description of the scenery as he first saw it: "The coun- 
try is mountainous, though the elevations are not very 
great in the immediate view. From the anchorage (for 
there is no harbor) the scene before you presents beau- 
tiful fields laid out in squares, ascending from the sea 
quite to the tops of the mountains. In one you see yel- 
low wheat-stubble, indicating that a fruitful harvest has 
just been gathered, in another green corn just cut 
and put together in shocks. And in a third the rich 
brown soil has recently been turned up with the plough, 
to prepare it for the reception of the seed for another 
crop. The higher parts are occupied with brushwood; 
and dispersed through the valleys which descend to the 
shore are beautiful groves of fruit-trees, olives, figs, ap- 
ples, pears, etc. The humble dwellings of the natives 
are mostly assembled in groups, but many appear to be 
separated and surrounded by their own gardens, and 
nearly concealed among the trees. Withal it possesses 
more of a rural aspect than anything I have seen in 
Turkey." That was written nearly four score years 
ago, and though the laborers have been few, the faith- 
ful seed-sowing continued through all this period is 
beginning to yield a harvest. In 1897 Mr. Crawford, 
writing of the extent and ripeness of the field, reported 
that "within a circle of from one and one-half hours 
from the city there are fifty villages of Armenians, and 
in those villages there are only five priests and no 
teachers and no schools. The people are ready to lis- 
ten to the gospel." Thirteen years later, in 1910, in 
speaking of the new regime in Turkey he writes : "In 

[ 538] 



Biographical Sketches 

Ordou and in Trebizond Gregorians and Protestants 
are coming nearer one another. This is a hopeful sign. 
It means that the Gregorians, many of whom have been 
educated in our schools, are recognizing the reasonable- 
ness of Protestant doctrines. Unfortunately, our Prot- 
estants are making too great a sacrifice, and the 
practical union seems to be less on religious and more 
on material and worldly lines." After speaking of our 
two strong churches in Ordou — one for Greeks and one 
for Armenians — Mr. Crawford continues: "Through- 
out all their subsequent triumphs and trials Armenians 
and Greeks have been mutually helpful to one another, 
materially and spiritually, and both have grown so that 
to-day there are in Ordou over three times as many 
church members in each communion and nearly twice as 
many adherents, not to mention those in neighboring 
villages. 

"The total number of adherents in our fields in 1882 
was 170; in 1909, 1304. The total number of church 
members in our field in 1882 was 50; in 1909, 463." 

In all this growth and progress which he has wit- 
nessed, Mr. Crawford has been a most efficient agent. 
His knowledge of the habits and characteristics of the 
people and his familiarity with the languages used in ad- 
dressing the different nationalities among them, make 
him an important member of the band of 200 mission- 
aries now connected with our four missions in that coun- 
try. It is to be hoped that Mr. Crawford has before 
him yet many years of valuable service in that country 
to the regeneration of which he has devoted his life, and 
which is now passing through a great national crisis. 

Besides the visit to this country in 1883-86, Mr. 
Crawford was from 1900 to 1903 pastor in South wick, 
Massachusetts, and Portland, Connecticut. 

Dr. Crawford married, on August 13, 1879, Susan 
Van Vranken, daughter of Edwin Augustus and Ma- 

[ 539 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

ria (Stafford) Doolittle, granddaughter of Spencer and 
Harriet (Romeyne) Stafford, and a descendant of 
Claus Romeyne, who came from Holland in 1660. Mrs. 
Crawford's great-grandfather and great-great-grand- 
father were Dutch Reform clergymen. Mrs. Crawford 
died in Topsfield, Massachusetts, August 12, 1884. He 
was next married, on October 13, 1886, to Jeannie 
Grace, daughter of James C. Greenough (Williams 
1860) and Jennie Ashley (Bates) Greenough, of 
Westrleld, Massachusetts, who died February 5, 1888. 
On September 4, 1900, he married, in Constantinople, 
Miss Olive Newell Twichell, then of Constantinople, 
but born in Plantsville, Connecticut, daughter of 
Deacon Edward and Jane (Walkly) Twichell of 
Plantsville. 

Of three children born to him, a daughter and son 
by the first marriage are living: Mrs. Leslie Stafford 
(Crawford) Hun (Smith College 1904), the wife of 
John Gale Hun, Ph.D. (Williams 1899), instructor in 
Mathematics, Princeton University; and Douglas Gor- 
don Crawford (Williams 1904), teacher in the de- 
partment of English, Phillips Academy, Andover, 
Massachusetts. 

Besides the degree of Bachelor of Arts received in 
course, Dr. Crawford received from his Alma Mater 
the honorary degree of Master of Arts in 1886, and of 
Doctor of Divinity in 1899. He is an Honorary Mem- 
ber of the Archaeological Society, Anatolia, Turkey. 

Besides various letters and papers published in the 
Missionary Herald, he published: "Sunday-school Les- 
sons" (1887-88), and "Tracts in Greek" (1890-94). 



CLASS OF 1877 
Rollo Ogden, son of Rev. Isaac Gray and Emma 
(Huntington) Ogden, and grandson of Jonathan and 

[ 540 J 



Biographical Sketches 

Anastasia Ogden, was born at Sand Lake, New York, 
January 19, 1856. The family is descended from John 
Ogden, who came to this country from England and 
settled on Long Island in 1640. Rev. Isaac Gray Og- 
den was graduated at this college with Phi Beta Kappa 
rank in the class of 1849, to which class belonged John 
Bascom, Robert Russell Booth, Henry Martyn Hoyt, 
and Charles Seymour Robinson. After teaching sev- 
eral years at Binghamton and Sand Lake, he studied 
theology at Andover and was ordained by Presbytery 
in 1858. He served several churches in the State 
of New York and after retiring from the active 
work of the ministry in 1892, he spent some years in 
Troy and New York City. He ended his long and 
useful life at Devon, Pennsylvania, November 28, 
1904. 

Rollo Ogden, the son, fitted for college in the pub- 
lic schools and entered the class of 1877, at the begin- 
ning of Freshman year. Three other members of this 
class, William Henry Sanders, Magness Smith, and 
George Albert Wilder, entered the foreign missionary 
service. Mr. Ogden was a prominent member of his 
class and engaged in various student activities, both in- 
tellectual and athletic. He was a member of the Phil- 
otechnian Society, of which he was one of the presi- 
dents, for a time secretary, and member of the Li- 
brary Committee; president of his class in Sophomore 
year; one of the editors of the Williams Athenaeum 
and president of its Executive Board; recording secre- 
tary of Phi Beta Kappa; member of the Class Foot- 
ball Team; of the Boxing Club; the Chandler Rowing 
Club; of the University Baseball Team; captain of the 
Class Nine; and vice-president of the Baseball Associ- 
ation. He won the prize for pole vaulting; took prizes 
in Latin, French, and Essays ; took one of the Graves 
prizes with the subject "Culture of the Senses"; was 

[ 541 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

one of the speakers in the Williams Contest in Oratory 
June 30, 1877, his subject being "The French 
Revolution"; and was graduated with Phi Beta 
Kappa rank, having at Commencement the Philosophi- 
cal Oration on the subject "The Argument from 
Antiquity." 

After graduation he spent two years at Andover 
Theological Seminary and one year at Union Semi- 
nary. He was ordained as a Presbyterian minister on 
May 13, 1881, and was associate pastor of the First 
Church in Cleveland, Ohio, 1880-81. Under appoint- 
ment of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, 
he with his wife sailed as a missionary to the City of 
Mexico, January 12, 1882, but at the end of about two 
years, on account of the illness of Mrs. Ogden, he re- 
turned to the United States. From 1883 to 1887 he 
was pastor of the Case Avenue Church in Cleveland, 
Ohio. From 1887 to 1903, he was engaged in literary 
work in connection with the Nation, being for a part 
of that time on the staff of the Evening Post, of which 
he has been editor since February 1, 1903. As editor 
he writes numerous articles each year, and discusses a 
wide range of topics. He uses vigorous English and 
treats in an interesting way whatever he writes about, 
whether his topic is politics, religion, science, art, liter- 
ature, or education. The following extract from an 
editorial which was inspired by President H. A. Gar- 
field's Inaugural Address gives some idea of Dr. Og- 
den' s style as a writer and at the same time shows that 
he holds sound views in matters pertaining to theories 
of education. "The college," he writes, "should have 
a college standard, which it should enforce without fear 
or favor. The standard ought not to be that of a so- 
cial club, or an athletic association, but of a body of 
scholars pursuing the intellectual life. Something of 
the rigor with which technical and professional schools 

[ 542 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

demand from all their students a certain measure of 
attainment, would be wonderfully tonic in our colleges. 
There would be no moral condemnation in excluding 
men who could not or would not do the required work, 
any more than there is in dropping incompetent stu- 
dents by the Institute of Technology or the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons. It would be simply the dis- 
passionate enforcement of a sound rule, the cool facing 
and application of the fact : this is a society for intellec- 
tual training. You show no capacity even to appreciate 
it, much less to share in it, and we must ask you to be- 
take yourself elsewhere." 

Mr. Ogden received the honorary degree of L. H. D. 
from this college in 1903. He is a member of the 
Century and the City Clubs, and has his residence at 
Summit, New Jersey. 

He married, on November 30, 1881, in Cleveland, 
Ohio, Susan, daughter of Rev. Dr. Arthur and Harriet 
E, (Post) Mitchell, granddaughter of Matthew Mitch- 
ell and descendant of Richard Mitchell, who came from 
England to Nantucket, Massachusetts, early in the 
seventeenth century. Dr. Arthur Mitchell was a grad- 
uate of this college in the class of 1853, and was a trus- 
tee of the college from 1882 to 1887. He was an eminent 
preacher and pastor, and was for many years the effi- 
cient Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign 
Missions. 

Of four children bom to Mr. Ogden, two daugh- 
ters, Alice and Winifred Ogden, and a son, Nelson 
Ogden, a mechanical engineer, are living and reside in 
Summit. 

Besides a very large number of articles that have 
appeared in the Evening Post and other periodicals, 
Dr. Ogden has published a "Life of William H. Pres- 
cott" (1904), and "The Life and Letters of Edwin L. 
Godkin" (1907). 

[ 543 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

William Henry Sanders, son of Rev. Marshall 
Danforth and Georgianna (Knight) Sanders, and 
grandson of Anthony and Celinda (Brown) Sanders 
and of Joseph and Ruby (Hyde) Knight, was born in 
Tellippallai (Tillipalli), Jaffna, Ceylon, March 2, 
1856. He is of English descent on his father's side, and 
of Scotch-Irish descent on his mother's side. Of four 
Sanders brothers who came from England and settled 
in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, one subsequently 
went to Rhode Island. This last is the immigrant an- 
cestor of this branch of the family. The father, Mar- 
shall Danforth Sanders, who was a graduate of this 
college in the class of 1846, and was a native of Wil- 
liamstown, was for nearly twenty years a missionary 
in Ceylon. He raised the foreign endowment for 
Jaffna College, Ceylon, and was to be the first presi- 
dent, but died before the organization of the college 
could be perfected. He is spoken of as of genial, sym- 
pathetic nature, a strong, forceful character, firm in 
conviction, — a leader of men. The mother, who had a 
sweet, loving nature, also had a strong character and 
personality, and was a natural leader. Of the six sons 
who survived the father all became prominent. Rev. 
Charles S. Sanders (Amherst 1875), who was a mis- 
sionary in Turkey for twenty-six years, and who died at 
Aintab in 1906, was one of these sons. Besides the sub- 
ject of our sketch, the sons now living are Joseph 
Anthony Sanders, M.D., of the medical staff at the Clif- 
ton Springs Sanitarium; Frank Knight Sanders, Ph. 
D., D.D., LL.D., President of Washburn College; 
and Walter Edward Sanders, Ph.R., a mechanical en- 
gineer, Trenton, New Jersey. 

William Henry Sanders spent his early years in 
Ceylon, coming to this country in 1865. In the spring 
of 1866 he was received into the home of Keyes Dan- 
forth, Esq., of Williamstown, Massachusetts, who had 

[ 544 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

been a classmate of his father in the class of 1846. This 
continued to be Mr. Sanders' home until his starting 
for Africa. He pursued his preparatory studies in the 
High School and Dr. Griffin's Private School in Wil- 
liamstown, and entered college as a Freshman in 1873. 
In college he was a member of the Philologian Society 
and of the Mills Young Men's Christian Association, in 
connection with which he was a member of the Com- 
mittee on Devotional Meetings. He also took great 
interest in college athletics, being a member of the Col- 
lege and Class Nines, of the Class Football Team, and 
of the Club Crew in the Rowing Association. He was 
also a successful student and had an Oration at Com- 
mencement, the subject of his address being "The Ger- 
mans in America." After graduation he pursued a 
course of study in theology at the Hartford Seminary, 
from which he was graduated in 1880. While in the 
seminary he received an appointment from the Ameri- 
can Board as a missionary destined to Bihe, West Cen- 
tral Africa. He was ordained in Williamstown, and 
on August 7, of the same year, he sailed from New 
York for Liverpool, en route via Lisbon to Africa, in 
company with Rev. W. W. Bagster, who was the leader 
of the new mission. Mr. Bagster remaining in England 
for a time to purchase the mission outfit, Mr. Sanders 
proceeded to Portugal, where he spent five weeks in 
studying the Portuguese language. On October 5, in 
company with Messrs. Bagster and Miller, he em- 
barked at Lisbon, and landed at Benguella November 
12. On account of the difficulty of obtaining porters, 
the party remained here about four months, utilizing 
their time in further study of the Portuguese, and in 
obtaining words and phrases of Umbundu from the na- 
tive headman who had been hired, who spoke both Por- 
tuguese and Umbundu. The house which they had 
taken for one month while they were getting ready to 

[ 545 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

march into the interior was thus described by Mr. San- 
ders: "The house has three rooms and an entry. One 
room is used for the storage of our heavy boxes; the 
next is the dining-room; the third room has two win- 
dows without any glass, and here we sleep and write and 
work. The floor is paved with stones, but if any side- 
walk in Boston were as rough the newspapers would 
cry out at once. Our household now consists, besides 
ourselves, of two Cabinda servants, two dogs, many 
rats, more mice, most of all fleas. The sea breeze com- 
mences to blow into our front windows certainly by the 
middle of each forenoon, and it keeps the house as cool 
and pleasant as can be desired, even at the hottest part 
of the day. The black people here are most miserable 
in appearance. It is scarcely possible to see fifty of 
them without finding many whose toes are either en- 
tirely or partly gone, or their legs much swollen. This 
is due to neglect in extracting the 'jiggers,' a kind of in- 
sect which burrows under the skin of the feet." 

On March 9, 1881, in company with Messrs. Bag- 
ster and Miller, Mr. Sanders started inland, reaching 
Catumbella two days later and Bailundu on March 29. 
Owing to an unsuccessful attempt to go on to Bihe, a 
station was begun at Bailundu. In November two 
more men with their wives came, and the following year 
another party of reenforcements arrived. On Sep- 
tember 12, 1882, Mr. Sanders was married at Bailundu 
to Miss Minnie Mawhir. In this and the following 
year Mr. Sanders, accompanied in the latter year by 
Mr. Fay, had explored the country around Bihe with 
the view of establishing there a station. Of the first of 
these visits, Mr. Sanders wrote, under date of May 6, 
1882: "The day after the load-carriers caught up with 
me we reached the village of Bihe's ruler. The natives 
call him Chilemo. He told me that his name is Antonio 
Kangombe (not Kagnombe). The last name is dimin- 

[ 546] 



Biographical Sketches 

utive for 'ox.' Hence he might be called in our lan- 
guage Antonio Small-ox or Little-ox. The next morn- 
ing I called on him. He was clad in a battered 'plug 
hat,' and a military coat given by De Serpa Purto, I 
was told. It has never been cleaned since given, un- 
less appearances are very deceitful. A filthy shirt and 
a large cloth from his waist to foot completed his attire. 
His appearance is that of an old toper, and indeed Mrs. 
Kangombe and a seculo by name of Chitandula are said 
to be the real rulers. He (the soba) welcomed us, and 
appointed a place for us to settle in. I said that we 
were not obliged to settle in his country, and unless a 
location which suited us could be obtained, we would 
not come there." 

After these explorations, Mr. and Mrs. Sanders and 
Mr. W. E. Fay, being assigned to this new field, started 
for Bihe November 19, 1883. All in Bihe, however, 
were recalled to Bailundu in May of the following year 
because of an order from the chief of that country to 
leave and retire to the coast. This order was probably 
issued by the influence of a trader. On July 4, 1884, 
Bailundu station was plundered and the whole mission 
was driven to the coast. About the end of August Mr. 
and Mrs. Sanders started inland again, and after being 
stranded for a month at Chivula, they went on and set- 
tled in Bailundu again. In September, 1886, Mr. and 
Mrs. Sanders, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Fay, went 
again to Bihe and reestablished Kamundongo station. 
Of a previous visit there Mr. Sanders had written: 
"Going again to Kamundongo, we found a fine place 
at which to build, about a mile from our old site, so we 
decided to locate there. We estimate that there will be 
about 3000 people within a radius of six miles from our 
village. Allowing two persons to each house, we make 
the population of the group of villages at Kamundongo 
600. About 350 of these will be from six to ten min- 

[ 547 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

utes distant from our place, thus making it possible for 
our wives to go among them." 

About this time Mr. Sanders, of Bihe, and Mr. Cur- 
rie, of Bailundu, made a trip for the purpose of ascer- 
taining the character and population of the region north 
and northeast of their stations, hoping to find a site 
favorable for a new station. Early in 1888, Mr. and 
Mrs. Sanders went to Benguella to occupy the station 
there, returning to Bihe the following year. In 1890 
occurred the war between the Portuguese and the Bi- 
heans, in which troubles Mr. Sanders was of much serv- 
ice to the natives. When the Portuguese commander, 
Captain (afterwards Major) Paira, was imprisoning 
or killing the people and plundering and burning the 
native settlements, in order to compel the Biheans to 
deliver up their chief, Dunduma, whom he had been 
ordered to capture, Mr. Sanders undertook to induce 
the chief to give himself up, on the promise of lenient 
treatment. Messrs. Arnot and Fisher, of the English 
Mission, joined in this attempt later, until finally the 
chief surrendered himself and was deported, when the 
people had peace. One of the good results of this war 
was the firmer establishment of the mission. The faith 
of the natives in their charms and fetiches was shaken, 
while their confidence in the missionaries was strength- 
ened, a greater readiness to listen to the presentation of 
the gospel was manifested, and a very marked religious 
interest prevailed. Another illustration of the increas- 
ing influence of the missionaries occurred in 1902, when, 
at the time of the native rebellion in Bailundu and in 
the region toward the coast, the warnings of the mis- 
sionaries, as they believe, deterred the Biheans from 
joining in revolt. 

Mr. Sanders was the "ambassador of peace" not 
merely in political affairs : he preached the word, being 
instant in season, out of season; he taught, training 

[ 548 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

young men to become evangelists; he itinerated, and 
did a most important work in reducing the language to 
a written form, and in translating into it the Scriptures 
and other literature. In 1901, after twenty years of 
service, in reporting the annual meeting of the mission, 
he wrote: "Every station showed good progress 
and hence all were cheerful. At Sakanjimba they 
were glad to have so many with whom to begin a 
church; also because they had drawn so many young 
men to live at the station. At Bailundu, besides large 
schools and strong spiritual life, the calls for out-station 
schools is increasing. At Chisamba the station and out- 
station schools show a good enrolment. The fifty-four 
church members and fifty-one catechumens, including 
those at Ciyuka, make a very promising outlook for 
that church. At Kamundongo the five out-station 
schools, with an enrollment of 251, indicate a decided 
move forward. So it is not surprising that our meet- 
ing was cheerful." 

It is now a little over thirty years since Mr. San- 
ders, with two companions, commenced a new station 
in West Central Africa. For a time, by the death of 
one companion and the departure of the other, he was 
left alone. The natural difficulties he had to contend 
with were greatly increased by the race hatred induced 
by the unscrupulous exactions of Portuguese traders. 
His patience, diplomacy, and fidelity have prevailed, 
and the mission is prosperous. In the mission there are 
now thirty-one American missionaries, five organized 
churches, with over 700 communicants, 182 native 
Christian teachers, forty-eight schools, with nearly 
5000 receiving instruction, and 13,000 natives now 
bearing the name of Christian. 

In this period of thirty-two years Mr. Sanders has 
visited America three times, 1892-93, 1903-05, and 
1911-12. In this last visit he attended the Commence- 

[ 549 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

ment at Williams College on the thirty-fifth anniver- 
sary of the graduation of his class, and received from 
his Alma Mater the honorary degree of Doctor of 
Divinity. 

As has been stated, Dr. Sanders married on Sep- 
tember 12, 1882, at Bailundu, Miss Minnie Mawhir, 
who died August 8, 1891, at Kamundongo. It was said 
of her that she was of "devoted character and mission- 
ary zeal." A daughter by this marriage died August 
9, 1885. 

He next married on October 17, 1893, at Benguella, 
Sarah, daughter of Thomas and Esther (Reid) Bell, 
granddaughter of James and Rachel (McBurney) Bell 
and of John and Elizabeth (Bartley) Reid, and a de- 
scendant from ancestors who went from Scotland to 
Ireland at the time of the persecution. Miss Bell had 
joined the mission in 1888. By this wife he had two 
sons, Marshall Thomas Sanders and Keyes Danforth 
Sanders, who are still living. 

Dr. Sanders translated into the Umbundu language 
the Gospel of John (printed in 1888), and "Pilgrim's 
Progress" (1904) . In 1910 he revised and enlarged the 
Umbundu-English Dictionary. This had first been 
prepared in the beginning of the mission by Sanders 
and Fay, and was printed in America in 1884. About 
1897, Mr. Fay gathered the words found by the various 
missionaries since 1884, and the old vocabulary and the 
added words were all tested and an Umbundu-English 
Dictionary prepared. In 1910, by the direction of the 
mission, this was revised and enlarged by Mr. Sanders, 
and also an English-Umbundu part, with Mrs. San- 
ders' help, was prepared. These were printed at Ka- 
mundongo on the mission press early in 1911. The 
Umbundu language was wholly unwritten and wholly 
unknown when the first American missionaries reached 
Bailundu and Bihe. When the volume was published, 

[ 550] 



Biographical Sketches 

the editor of the 3Iissionary Herald called it "a striking 
testimony of what has been accomplished in this Afri- 
can station, begun thirty years ago." 

Magness Smith, son of Foss G. and Emerline 
(Grant) Smith, was born in Kennebunk, Maine, Feb- 
ruary 14, 1848. His father was a farmer by occupa- 
tion. The son fitted for college in the New Hampton 
Institute, where he was converted and united with the 
Baptist church, having in view thereafter the Baptist 
ministry. He entered Bates College in 1873, but after 
a year he came to Williams and entered the Sophomore 
class, his catalogue address being Lyman, Maine. He 
was older than most of the students, and always ex- 
hibiting the dignity and instincts of the gentleman, he 
was enabled to exercise a strong and wholesome influ- 
ence in favor of upright conduct. He won, in an 
unusual degree, the confidence and esteem of fellow stu- 
dents and teachers. He maintained a good rank in 
scholarship, and graduated with the appointment of a 
Dissertation. He was excused from speaking at Com- 
mencement, but his name appeared in the list of speak- 
ers, his subject being "The Mental Discipline of Busi- 
ness." In college he was a member of the Mills Young 
Men's Christian Association, and of a Rowing Club. 
After graduation, he taught for a year in the acad- 
emy at Yates, New York. Having married in October, 
1878, he with his wife sailed to South America, reach- 
ing Mollendo, Peru, where they were to be located, on 
November 30. Before leaving this country Mr. Smith 
united with the Methodist Church in Williamstown, of 
which his wife was a member. Their plan was to open 
a self-supporting English school, and incidentally to 
do whatever religious work the laws of the country 
would allow. It was missionary work, though to be 
done independently of any Board. It was some time 

[5511 



Williams College and Missions 

before a school could be opened, but Mr. Smith devoted 
himself assiduously to teaching, as he had opportunity, 
and to the acquisition of the Spanish language. After 
about four months of work he was seized with typhoid 
fever, from which he died April 19, 1879, after an ill- 
ness of nineteen days. The last words he uttered be- 
fore passing into a state of unconsciousness were: "Tell 
them there is a Christ." 

The circumstances attending the sickness and death 
of Mr. Smith were rendered the more distressing be- 
cause of the war which then existed between Peru, Chili, 
and Bolivia over disputed territory. Two days be- 
fore the death of Mr. Smith, the town of Mollendo 
was bombarded by the Chilians from a vessel of 
war. 

Mrs. Smith still remembers with gratitude the many 
acts of kindness shown her by people of various forms 
of religious belief in the time of her great bereavement 
in that land of strangers. 

Mr. Smith was married in Williamstown, Massa- 
chusetts, October 23, 1878, to Miss Celestia M. 
Solomon, daughter of Elisha W. and Sarah Ann 
(Prentiss) Solomon, granddaughter of Asher and So- 
phia Prentiss and of Albert and Azuba Solomon. Mrs. 
Smith resides in South Hadley, Massachusetts, where 
she has a position in Mount Holyoke College. 

George Albert Wilder was born March 14, 18.55, 

at Amanzimtoti Mission station, Xatal, South Africa. 
He is the son of the missionaries, Rev. Hyman Augus- 
tine and Abby Temperance (Linsley) Wilder, and the 
grandson of Ora and Sally (Wheelock) Wilder, and 
of Horace and Betsey (Sampson) Linsley. 

The father was graduated at this college in 18^.5, 
and for twenty-eight years was a most faithful and ef- 
ficient missionary in South Africa. He was an elo- 

[552] 



Biographical Sketches 

quent preacher and lecturer, and along with a desire to 
help others, he had the ability to adapt himself to cir- 
cumstances and the power to accomplish great results. 
Other marked characteristics of his nature were humor, 
a love of justice, perseverance, poetic sense. 

The family of Wilder is thought to be descended 
from Thomas Wilder, who was born at Shiplake, Eng- 
land, and died there in 1634. Martha Wilder, who left 
Shiplake in May, 1638, for the Colonies, was presum- 
ably the widow of Thomas, and the mother of Thomas, 
Elizabeth, and Edward, whom, it is thought, she sent 
with friends to the Colonies, while she remained for a 
time to dispose of her effects. As it was a time of per- 
secution, it is likely that the Wilders, by reason of their 
religious character, belonged to the persecuted class. 
The first Wilder known in history was Xicholas, a mili- 
tary chieftain, who served at the battle of Bos worth, in 
14 85, in the army of the Earl of Richmond. As the 
name is of German origin, it is thought that Xicholas 
was one of those who came from France with the Earl 
of Richmond and landed at Milford Haven. 

The writer of the Introductory Xote in ' ; The Book 
of the Wilders," in speaking of the thousands of de- 
scendants of Martha Wilder, says: "Inheriting the 
'bluest blood of the Puritans,' they have not departed 
widely from their primitive type of family and mental 
character. Few among them have ever received in- 
struction at a college or university ; fewer still have ever 
been enrolled as servants ; yet very many have been self- 
taught and scholarly. The great body of them have 
been influential members of society, not often aspiring 
to lead, but not willing to follow a leader blindly. . . . 
They have displayed from the first all the nobler char- 
acteristics of their progenitors — earnestness of purpose, 
fidelity in pecuniary affairs, punctuality in the fulfilling 
of engagements, strict veneration for truth, patient in- 

[ 553 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

dustry, inflexible tenacity, and other kindred qualities. 
They do not leave unfinished what they have begun." 

Among the more distinguished ancestors of the sub- 
ject of this sketch were Judge Ashley Sampson, Judge 
of the United States Circuit Court, and Rev. Joel Lins- 
ley, D.D., President of Marietta College, and some- 
time pastor of Park Street Church, Boston. 

George Albert Wilder remained in Zululand until 
1868, when at the age of thirteen he came to this coun- 
try with his parents. He fitted for college at Phillips 
Andover Academy and entered Williams as a Fresh- 
man in 1873. In college he engaged in various student 
activities, both intellectual and athletic. He was a 
member of the Philologian Society, of which he was at 
one time secretary and again treasurer, and also vice- 
president ; he was one of the secretaries and also one of 
the directors in the Mills Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation, and in connection with it was one of the com- 
mittee on Sunday-school work. In the exhibition of the 
Moonlighters, July 6, 1875, he took the first Sopho- 
more prize, his subject being "The Future of the Black 
Man." He was a member of the Musical Association 
and of the Glee Club ; of the Chess Club ; of the Foot- 
ball Team; of the Class Crew; of the Rowing Associa- 
tion; and of the College Nine, of which he was pitcher. 
It was also recorded that he was one of the two winners 
of the Siamese Twin Race, October 10, 1874. On Class 
Day he was the Historian. 

On graduation he entered Hartford Theological 
Seminary, from which he was graduated in 1880. For 
a time in this year he occupied Dr. Hodge's pulpit, and 
the better to fit himself for his work, he spent three 
months in a hospital. 

On October 9 of the same year he and his wife sailed 
from New York under appointment of the American 
Board, to join the Zulu Mission, arriving at Durban, 

[ 554 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

Natal, December 13. He was located at Umtwahime, 
the station that had been opened thirty years before by 
his father. He was not only the son of missionary par- 
ents and born on missionary ground, but he was com- 
ing back to scenes familiar to him. He was the first 
son of the Zulu Mission to return and join the fathers 
in the carrying on of their great work. He knew many 
of the people, and his knowledge of the language was 
so good that lie was able to preach, to the delight of the 
natives, the first Sunday after his arrival. 

His first letter to the Missionary Herald reports 
the gathering of native churches held at his station Au- 
gust 3-7, 1881. After describing in a sparkling style 
the busy, bustling time of the preparations made in re- 
spect to house, food, and dress, Mr. Wilder writes of the 
services: "Our people did not forget to prepare them- 
selves also spiritually. The meeting had been prayed 
for in public and private for many weeks. At the open- 
ing session an address of welcome was given by Urn- 
pahlwa, who as a little boy, nearly thirty years ago, 
came to work for my father. The singing would make 
you smile, to say the least, but no matter. Good church 
music is a cultivated flower, not produced when the 
early missionaries were laboring in the German wilds. 
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, at early 
morn, noon, and night, the crowd gathered in and about 
our little church, to hear a rousing sermon, loud sing- 
ing, and earnest prayers. Two or three hundred 
heathen congregate at noon under our far-spreading 
wild fig-tree, and are urged to repent. Saturday noon 
some one hundred children from the kraals came at my 
request (I had first obtained permission of their par- 
ents to let them come) , and one of our promising young 
men gave them a talk. Sunday, Ufunjwa, an old play- 
mate of mine, was received back in the church, after 
passing a most acceptable examination. He is a strong 

[ 555 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

young man, and is doing a good work among the kraals, 
where he has a day school. On Sunday evening reports 
were given from all the stations, and the contributions 
for their Home Mission fund announced. They 
amounted in all to $440. An out-station, started by a 
native, heads the list with a subscription of over §65. 
Umtwalume station, by no means the largest or wealth- 
iest, and with all the expenses of having guests, stands 
third in the list of subscriptions. With thanksgiving 
and praise the meeting closes, and Monday all are 
gone." 

This extract shows how others had labored and Mr. 
Wilder had entered into their labor. The advantage 
which he had from an acquaintance with the language 
and the customs and character of the people showed 
itself in the success which attended his labors from the 
first. Letters in 1883 report the addition of twenty- 
eight members to his church and in the following year 
of nine more. Reports of succeeding years speak of 
"special meetings," of "much fruit," and in 1889 of the 
receiving to church fellowship of fifty-three adult mem- 
bers in twelve months. Besides his other labors, Dr. 
Wilder has interested himself in looking for fields 
where new stations could be opened with advantage. 
By request of the chief of the Polela district of Natal, 
Dr. Wilder visited that district in 1888. The following 
year, in company with Mr. Bates, he made an expedi- 
tion to the kraal of Gungunyana, in the Gaza country. 
In 1891, he wrote for the Missionary Herald an article 
entitled, "Are there Zulus under the 'Mountains of the 
Moon'?" in which he discusses some of Stanley's state- 
ments and draws the inference that there is a kinship 
between the tribes living on the highlands near the 
Mountains of the Moon and the Zulus of Southeastern 
Africa, and advises the establishment of a mission 
among these northern tribes. In 1892-93 he made tours 

[ 556] 



Biographical Sketches 

to the "Highlands," and in 1906 across the Sabi valley. 
In many of the places visited Dr. Wilder found the 
chiefs and peoples eager for the coming of the Ameri- 
can missionary. The expedition made in 1893 covered 
over 1000 miles. The leadership of this expedition fell 
naturally to Mr. Wilder, whose knowledge of the native 
character helped fit him for this position. Besides Mr. 
and Mrs. Wilder and their two children, the party con- 
sisted of Dr. Thompson and Mr. Bunker, their wives, 
Mr. Bates, a Miss Jones, who was a colored teacher and 
graduate of Fisk University, and four or Hve native 
helpers. They sailed in a steamer from Natal up the 
coast 600 miles to Port Beira, from which place they 
proceeded up Busi River for 100 miles in skows and a 
boat designed by Mr. Wilder and made in sections of 
corrugated iron. The next 100 miles were made in ca- 
noes and the last seventy-five miles on foot. On account 
of the great distance passed over and the dangers expe- 
rienced in conflict with wild animals, one writer calls this 
"one of the most heroic missionary expeditions of mod- 
ern times." In this tour arrangements were made with 
fourteen leading chiefs to receive our missionaries and 
a site selected for a station at Mount Silinda. Letters 
in 1894 report the purchase of two farms containing 
24,000 acres, and the organization of work along edu- 
cational, evangelistic, and medical lines. The following 
year a new station was started by Mr. Wilder at Chi- 
kore, twenty miles west of Mount Silinda, and in 1897 
was organized the first church of Christ in Gazaland, 
with sixteen members, and at Christmas of 1900 was 
dedicated the new chapel. 

The efforts made to carry the gospel from the sta- 
tion at Chikore to the tribes in the valley of the Sabi 
River were remarkably successful. The Zulu helpers 
who had volunteered for the tour in that region 
met with an unheard-of welcome, and returned re- 

[557] 



Williams College and Missions 

porting fifty-six converts from heathenism in thirty 
days. 

In the work more immediately connected with his 
station, Dr. Wilder has laid great emphasis upon edu- 
cation. Accordingly, he has opened day schools and 
night schools, schools for training in Bible study, and 
schools for training in the industrial arts. 

In order to gain experience and also to extend the 
gospel news, members of the mission day schools are 
sent out to make "week-end tours" among neighboring 
tribes. Dr. Wilder's theory as to schools for training 
in the industrial arts is presented in an illuminating ar- 
ticle printed in the Missionary Herald for 1902, on "In- 
dustrial Training in a Mission to Uncivilized Peoples." 

He now has 250 pupils in his school, who are learn- 
ing to read, write, sew, sing, and many other things 
that a public school would teach. Mrs. Wilder teaches 
the little ones sewing and singing, while Dr. Wilder, 
in addition to his other duties, devotes five hours a week 
to the manual training department, showing the pupils 
how to build and lay bricks and tiles. Where less than 
twenty years ago there was a rank wilderness, with no 
buildings but the huts of the natives, there are now 
hundreds who can read, twenty European houses, 100 
church members and hundreds of professing Christians. 

Dr. Wilder's devotion to his work and faith in the 
future of the people for whom he labors enable him to 
discover the good qualities in the nature of that people 
and to set forth those qualities in an attractive light. 
As one reads the following account of the entertain- 
ment given at an annual gathering of the Christians of 
the South African Mission, one feels that a people ca- 
pable of such grace of hospitality is also capable of be- 
ing raised to the grade of civilized life: "The hospitality 
of the African was well illustrated at this meeting. Of 
the fourteen native Christian families, including Zulu 

[558] 



Biographical Sketches 

helpers that belong to the station, nine live from three 
to five miles away from the church. Now neither elec- 
tric cars nor bicycles are in common use in the station, 
yet the church decided to entertain the families from 
the sub-stations. Here is the result: one of our near- 
est neighbors, Sibuyarra, provided for nineteen on his 
premises; another, Hlanti, for twenty-three; another, 
Sombuyana, for thirteen; another for thirty-three; and 
still another for twenty-one. My boys' house, twenty- 
two by ten, gave a sleeping place for nineteen; my sta- 
ble for eighteen ; my workshop for forty boys ; my study 
for six girls, and Mrs. Wilder's laundry for six more. 
Our little church entertained for four days over 100 
visitors. Six new members joined the church yester- 
day, making the total fifty-one. Would any church in 
America of like size undertake to entertain such a num- 
ber of visitors?" 

In an article on "Striking Contrasts in South Af- 
rica," published in the "Envelope Series" for October, 
1911, Secretary Patton has given eighteen illustrations, 
one-half of which have to do with the results of Dr. 
Wilder's work or that of his father. Of a part of this 
work, Dr. Patton writes: "Up in Gazaland, where the 
American Board established its work eighteen years 
ago, there are social transformations of a marvellous 
kind. Nothing but the redeeming power of God can 
account for the transformations wrought at a place like 
Chikore. Sixteen years ago, when Dr. and Mrs. Wilder 
began work, the people were as low-down and gross as 
superstition and sin can make a people. The deviltry 
of the witch doctor and rain maker constituted the only 
religion. Incantations, sacrifices, orgies under the 
great Chikore tree on a hill-top were their only services. 
One Christian man and his wife built a home among 
those people. They learned the people's barbarous lan- 
guage, sought them out in their huts, cared for their 

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Williams College and Missions 

sick, taught them helpful methods of agriculture, 
opened a little school for the children, and by and by 
they organized a church. What is the result of it all? 

"I spent six days at Chikore in order to study with 
some care the effect of the gospel among primitive 
heathen. I found a well-ordered and rapidly growing 
Christian community. The typical heathen kraals were 
all about in abundance, but in the midst of them was a 
cluster of Christian houses — neat little square houses, 
divided into rooms, having glass windows, doors on 
hinges, tables, chairs, beds, fireplaces, dishes, and books. 
Best of all, I found a loving Christian welcome from 
father, mother, and children. I found a schoolhouse run- 
ning over with bright boys and girls, classes going on 
inside and outside at the same time. I found boys be- 
ing taught to use agricultural implements and carpen- 
try tools. I found a lusty young church, with its 
evangelists and deacons, its Sunday-school and its sys- 
tem of benevolence. I officiated at a solemn and well- 
ordered communion service. I found the whole region 
lifted up in intelligence, morality, and material pros- 
pects. In sixteen short years the progress of centuries 
has been made in social evolution. I said, 'It is a mir- 
acle,' and I say so still. The more I meditate upon 
it the more I am convinced that this work is the very 
work of God." 

Dr. Wilder's long service in his field and his knowl- 
edge of the native character have made his judgment 
appreciated not only by members of the British 
Mission but by the civil authorities as well. But espe- 
cially satisfying to a missionary's heart must be such 
testimony as the following which was recently sent by 
one of his evangelists to Dr. Wilder in his absence, 
"When the great heathen Chief, Makuza, thinks about 
you, tears fill his eyes," or when several natives unite 
in sending him such a letter as the following, express- 

[560] 



Biographical Sketches 

ing their appreciation of his services in teaching them 
various industries. 

Chikore Mission Station, 

June 29, 1906. 
Dear Teacher, who is loved — Rev. G. A. Wilder: 

Our first remark is that there is a saying of the An- 
cients to the effect that a man is praised after he is 
dead; now we have discovered that this is of no avail 
because he cannot longer hear. We have lately been 
hearing about the affairs in Natal, at the station of 
your father: we learn that your father would not tol- 
erate a person who would not work; and would even 
take after him with a stick if he hesitated about going 
to work. 

Now we hear that those people who were thus 
trained by your father are the people in Natal for 
they have their own works. 

Now among us we see that you are walking in the 
footsteps of your father. For our people here at first 
had no work of any kind, but now you are teaching 
them to work. In the first place, there is Mr. Jiho 
Mhlanga, a person who now greatly helps because he 
was taught to lay stone and brick by you, so that he 
now builds houses ; then there is Ndhlondhlo M. Hlahla, 
who helps us all greatly by building chimneys and be- 
cause he can lay stone. The third is Jonas M. Hlaty- 
wayo, he too has learned a little how to erect a chim- 
ney; moreover you first showed him how to make a 
strong chair. Beside all this you induced the Govern- 
ment to allow us the use of firearms with which to pro- 
tect our gardens from wild animals. Moreover, all the 
things which Nkomazana is able to do he learned from 
you — the breaking in and training and driving of oxen, 
and the use of the pit-saw. We also remember that 
you told us in the year 1905 that you had power to raise 
us up and that you had power to drag us down; we 

[561] 



Williams College and Missions 

now believe that a great many blessings are coming to 
us. We know what you said is the truth. 
Remain well, we are yours, 
(Signed by) 

Zito H. Sigauke 

Ndhlondhlo M. Hlahla 

Jonas M. Hlatywayo 

Jiho Mhlanga 

Kaziboni Nkomazana 

Sombuyana Nkomo, and others. 

Besides his work along educational, evangelistic, 
and medical lines, Dr. Wilder has done much in liter- 
ary lines and much to help reduce the dialects of the 
different tribes to a literary form. In the summer of 
1907, he walked over 200 miles at the rate of thirty- 
three miles a day to attend as a member an important 
conference held at Umtali in Mashonaland, where met 
a committee which had been appointed by the different 
missionary bodies of Southern Rhodesia "to decide 
upon a uniform system of spelling and a uniform set 
of terms for matters theological and ecclesiastical, to be 
used in writing the various dialects spoken by the dif- 
ferent tribes of that country." The conference was 
not only harmonious in the recommendations they 
adopted in respect to these matters, but "also took 
steps looking toward the preparation of a comparative 
grammar of these languages or dialects." 

In the summer of 1910, Dr. Wilder came near los- 
ing his life and was disabled for work by an encounter 
with a leopard. As it is believed the story of this ad- 
venture never appeared in the Missionary Herald, the 
following account, condensed from a report given by 
Dr. Wilder's son, may be given here. Early one 
evening news came that a leopard had been seen in the 
neighborhood and that it was killing the sheep and 

[ 562] 



Biographical Sketches 

goats of the natives. Dr. Wilder, who was at the time 
the only white man at the station, at once organized a 
hunting party to kill the animal. With the aid of two 
dogs they tracked the leopard to a clump of trees and 
high grass; the grass in South Africa growing very 
thickly and often to a height of five or six feet. De- 
ciding to beat the bush in front of him in hopes that 
the leopard would take refuge in a tree, all of the na- 
tives, save two of the more faithful, refused to follow 
him. While this party of three with the dogs were ad- 
vancing through the tall grass, the leopard sprang at 
Dr. Wilder, throwing him to the ground, striking him 
with his forepaws on both sides of his head, wounding 
him in his throat, his right temple, and left hand. The 
native, who was a few feet behind, fearing to fire lest 
he might hit Dr. Wilder, the beast suddenly bounded 
away, closely followed by the dogs. Though blinded 
by the blood that flowed from the wound in his head, 
Dr. Wilder managed to pick himself up, and appealed 
to some of the natives to suck the poisoned blood from 
his wounds. All refused until he asked two of the 
Christian natives, who, in spite of the risk to their own 
lives, obeyed the request of their missionary. Dr. 
Wilder then bandaged himself up with a large hand- 
kerchief, and, instead of going home, set out to kill 
the animal. He and one of the natives with their rifles 
succeeded in hitting the leopard, which with three legs 
already broken by their bullets still tried to fight with 
its one remaining paw, until it was finally killed. Dr. 
Wilder then walked three miles to his house, where he 
himself cut open his wounds with a razor and cauter- 
ized them. A doctor summoned from twenty miles 
away found that there was nothing for him to do as 
the patient had skilfully dressed his own wounds. Dr. 
Wilder was then carried twenty miles to the doctor's 
home on a stretcher suspended from the shoulders of 

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Williams College and Missions 

four men. Though the wounds healed rapidly, the 
nervous shock of the encounter was so great that Dr. 
Wilder was obliged to come to America for the neces- 
sary rest. Coming to this country in September, 1910, 
he was not able to return to his field of labor till Sep- 
tember, 1913. During the three years of his detention 
in this country, however, he did more or less work as 
he was able on a Vocabulary and Grammar of the Ndau 
language. 

He married May 27, 1880, Alice C, daughter of 
Nicholas and Elizabeth (Philbrook) Scammon, of 
Waltham, Massachusetts, and granddaughter of Nich- 
olas Scammon, whose ancestors came from England. 

Of three children born to them two are living: 
Clio Strong, wife of Erancis E. Lyman, who is with 
the American Telegraph and Telephone Company, 
Boston; and Leopold Livingstone Wilder, who was 
graduated here in 1907, and is a journalist in the office 
of the Springfield Republican. 

Dr. Wilder received the honorary degree of Doc- 
tor of Divinity from his Alma Mater in 1902. 

His publications are as follows: — Ubaqua: a Zulu 
monthly (editor) (1880-85); "Incwadi Yabakol- 
wayo": Catechism and Bible Text-book in Zulu (com- 
piler) (1883) ; joint compiler of "Amagama Okuhla- 
belela"— Zulu Hymnal (1885); "Value of Industrial 
Training on Mission Fields"— a reprint from the Mis- 
sionary Herald and Hartford Seminary Record 
(1901) ; "Bantu Languages" — a reprint from the 
Hartford Seminary Record (1902) ; "Ndau Religion" 
— a study in Primitive Religion — a reprint from the 
Hartford Seminary Record (1905-6) ; "Missions in 
South Africa, in Recent Christian Progress" (The 
Macmillan Company, 1909) ; major contributor to 
the second edition of "Amagama Okuhlabelela" — Zulu 
Hymnal (1911); "Ndau Hymn Book" (major con- 

[ 564 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

tributor and compiler) (Mt. Silinda Press, Rhodesia, 
South Africa, 1906) ; "Ndau Gospels" (Translator of 
Mark and John) (British and Foreign Bible Society, 
1910); Song — "Alone" — (words and music) (Bos- 
ton, 1911). 

CLASS OF 1878 

Alfred Hastings Burnell, the son of missionary 
parents, was born on missionary ground, in Manepay, 
Jaffna, Ceylon, August 12, 1852. His father was 
Rev. Thomas Scott Burnell, son of Rufus and Nancy 
(Kingsley) Burnell; and his mother Martha Sawyer. 

The family traces its ancestry back to the time of 
the Norman Conquest. In the seizure and division of 
the Saxon estates, William the Conqueror gave to 
Roger de Burnell the estate lying in Shropshire, near 
Shrewsbury, on which now stand the elder castle and 
later castle, and the castle occupied by the descendants 
of Roger. It is related that in 1283 Robert Burnell, 
Lord Chancellor of England and Bishop of Bath and 
Wells, then possessor of the castle and estate, was en- 
tertaining King Edward I for a six weeks' shooting, 
and during the time the King convened Parliament at 
Burnell Castle and licensed this Chancellor to fortify 
and embattle his castle. 

The first immigrant ancestor in America was 
William Burnell, who came with the Puritan colonists 
from England about 1640, and became a landholder in 
Boston. His descendants appear in the Church Rec- 
ords in Boston for over 100 years, and from the first 
till now, represent a godly race, scattered over the land, 
faithful in religious and civic duties. Descendants of 
William Burnell are yet to be found in Massachusetts, 
Connecticut, and many other States. 

Rufus Burnell, the grandfather of Alfred Has- 
tings Burnell, was prominent in church and all good 

[565 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

works, and was a deacon for many years in the church 
at Chesterfield, Massachusetts. Thomas Scott Bur- 
nell, the father, who was born in Chesterfield, became 
a printer and settled in Worcester, Massachusetts; but 
in 1848, he and his wife, under the appointment of the 
American Board, sailed for the Ceylon Mission, where 
they labored until 1855, when they were transferred to 
the Madura Mission, and soon afterward to Melur, 
where they labored together for more than a quarter of 
a century. Mr. Burnell went out at first as a printer 
for the mission but in 1856 was ordained as a minister. 

Alfred Hastings Burnell lived in Jaffna until three 
years of age, then in Melur, Madura, until he was 
twelve or thirteen, when, along with children of other 
missionaries, he was sent to this country, under the care 
of a missionary and his wife. On coming to America, 
he lived with relatives at Westminster, Vermont. 

He fitted for college at Andover and at Kimball 
Union Academy, Meriden, New Hampshire, and en- 
tered college in 1874. He remained at Williams until 
his Senior year, but did not graduate. In college he 
was a member of the Philologian Society; of the Mills 
Young Men's Christian Association; and of the 
Lyceum of Natural History, in which last he was a 
director in the department of echinoderms, and also 
for a time held the offices of treasurer and correspond- 
ing secretary. He was also an instructor in the college 
gymnasium. He studied theology at Auburn Semi- 
nary, from which he graduated in 1881. He was or- 
dained at Westminster West, Vermont, June 30, and 
sailed with his wife from New York, November 19 of 
the same year, to join the Madura Mission and take up 
the work begun by his father. The first year was spent 
at Pasumalai in the study of the language, and then he 
was stationed at Mana-Madura, which is thirty miles 
southeast of Madura and about twenty miles from 

[ M6 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

Melur, where his parents labored for many years, and 
where he spent his boyhood years. The station of 
Mana-Madura then had an area of 406 square miles, 
containing about 575 villages and 110,000 inhabitants. 
Here Mr. Burnell labored with success for four years. 
At the end of the first year of his work he reported the 
addition of a new congregation of some twenty-five or 
thirty members. At the close of the next year the con- 
gregations of the station numbered twenty with nine 
catechists to care for them. The report of the same 
time speaks of six village schools where the Bible was 
constantly taught, of a Hindu girls' school with thirty- 
two girls, and of the completion of a new school build- 
ing and catechists' house. Here in the midst of his 
successful labors and in the very prime of his life he 
was suddenly overcome by the heat and was hurried 
out of the country by the Mission lest a more serious 
harm should come. He arrived with his wife in New 
York, February 19, 1887. He lived five years after his 
return to America, always cherishing the vain hope that 
he might be enabled to return to the land of his 
adoption and to the work he so greatly loved. But 
the work for which he had prepared himself by so 
many years of study and which he had entered upon 
so auspiciously was closed. He died of inflammation 
of the brain at Nordhoff, California, November 2, 
1891. 

Mr. Burnell married August 11, 1881, Abby Jane, 
daughter of Rev. William Ward and Jane Elizabeth 
(Fay) Snell, of Rushford, Minnesota, and grand- 
daughter of Thomas and Tirzah (Strong) Snell. 
Thomas Snell was descended from John Alden and 
Priscilla, and was uncle to William Cullen Bryant, 
whose mother, Sarah Snell, was sister to Thomas Snell. 

Mrs. Burnell is a graduate of Carlton College. 
She with three children — Ward Kingsley, Marian 

[567] 



Williams College and Missions 

Snell, and Arnold Emerson — resides in Brookline, 
Massachusetts. 

CLASS OF 1879 

Henry Poor Perkins, son of Rev. Dr. Ariel 
Ebenezer Parish and Susan Osborn (Poor) Perkins, 
was born in Ware, Massachusetts, December 24, 1856. 
He was the grandson of Ebenezer and Amelia (Par- 
ish) Perkins, and of Henry and Mary (Osborn) Poor. 
His father, who was a minister, was graduated at Am- 
herst College in 1840, and received the honorary de- 
gree of Doctor of Divinity from Williams College in 
1870. Dr. Perkins was an accomplished scholar. The 
Amherst College necrologist wrote of him: "Perhaps 
no other man except Dr. Quint was a better authority 
or as often moderator of Councils." The family is de- 
scended from Deacon Thomas Perkins, who was born 
in Gloucestershire, England, in 1616, came to Boston 
in 1631, moved to Ipswich in 1633, and thence to Tops- 
field. Among distinguished ancestors may be men- 
tioned Miles Standish and Roger Conant. It is also 
probable that Bishop Roger Poor, who built Salisbury 
Cathedral, was an ancestor. Allied to the family was 
also Justin Perkins, the missionary to Persia. 

Henry Poor Perkins fitted for college in Monson 
Academy and Ware High School. One of the teach- 
ers to whom he owed most, was Charles E. Garman, 
who subsequently became professor of philosophy in 
Amherst College. 

Mr. Perkins entered college as a Freshman in 1875, 
and at once took rank with the foremost scholars of the 
class. He received prizes in Latin, mathematics, and 
oratory, being one of the speakers at the Moonlight 
Exhibition, and also had an honorable mention in 
Greek. He received an intercollegiate appointment in 
his Senior year, and was one of the Graves prize men, 

[ 668 J 



Biographical Sketches 

the subject of his essay being "Greek Philosophy pre- 
paring the way for Christianity." He was a member of 
the Philotechnian Society, in which he held for a time 
the offices of president and secretary. He was a secretary 
of the Adelphic Union, and one of the directors, a vice- 
president, and a treasurer of the Mills Young Men's 
Christian Association, in which he was also a member of 
the devotional committee. He was president of his 
class in Sophomore year, and was an editor of the Wil- 
liams Athenaeum in both Junior and Senior years. He 
was a member of the German Club and of the class 
Football Team. He graduated with Phi Beta Kappa 
rank, receiving the appointment of Salutatory Oration. 
Charles Albert Perkins of the same class was his 
brother. 

In the fall of 1879 Mr. Perkins entered the Hart- 
ford Theological Seminary, where he remained two 
years, and then entered the medical department of the 
University of the City of New York. As he had al- 
ready done work in anatomy and physiology, he was 
enabled to take, with profit, the lectures attended by 
the second and third year students. 

Dr. Perkins was ordained in the summer of 1882, 
and sailed for China about the 1st of October of the 
same year, reaching Tientsin November 19. Tientsin 
was his station until the spring of 1888. As the mis- 
sion had no medical work at this place, Dr. Perkins 
spent the winter of 1883 in Pao-ting-fu. Here rare op- 
portunities were open to him in doing dispensary work 
with Dr. Peck, in Bible teaching, street-chapel preach- 
ing, and touring with Mr. Pierson. About six months 
after his return from Pao-ting-fu he went to the distant 
station of Pang-Chuang, in the Province of Shantung, 
where he spent something over a year, employed much 
as' in Pao-ting-fu. In the spring of 1888 he went to 
Lintsing. After his first vacation, he went, in the fall 

[569] 



Williams College and Missions 

of 1893, to Pao-ting-fu, where he spent a year, return- 
ing thence to Lintsing, where he labored till the spring 
of 1900. This being the time of the Boxer rising, on 
June 23, Dr. Perkins left, under military escort pro- 
vided by the Lintsing Military Commandant, for the 
capital of the Shantung province, Chi nan fu (also 
written Tsi nan fu). From this place he went, some- 
what indirectly, to Kobe, Japan, where he arrived July 
16, and three days later was joined by his family. 
From here they returned to the United States, reaching 
San Francisco in October. On his return to China 
from this second vacation in the fall of 1901, having 
formed a definite idea of the needs of China politically, 
he went to Peking, and having used his influence in 
starting the union of the various Protestant mission 
institutions of North China, he got himself located at 
Pao-ting-fu. From here he visited his old station of 
Lintsing, and then Pang-Chuang, which was the only 
one of their seven stations that had escaped the Boxer 
cyclone. Here he found the only two books that had 
escaped in the uprising. One of these books happened 
to be a "Short History of the United States" with the 
Constitution at the end. On the long journey by cart- 
ride and on foot to Tientsin he spent his waking hours 
in meditating upon China's future in the light of the 
experience of modern nations. When he reached Pao- 
ting-fu, those meditations had taken the form of a Po- 
litical Outline, which outline he had put into English 
and Chinese. 

Both in religious and civil matters Dr. Perkins has 
taken an enlarged view of the relations of missionary 
work in China to the regeneration of the people. He 
believes in the educating influence of individual respon- 
sibility. Consequently he would aim at developing a 
genuine native church, and his theory seems to be sup- 
ported by his success, while in civil affairs he believes 

[570] 



Biographical Sketches 

in popular representation as the basis of government. 
The events that occurred in connection with the Boxer 
rising gave him an opportunity to present his views to 
certain officials in high position. In view of the im- 
portant events now taking place in China the accom- 
panying letter, now printed for the first time, embody- 
ing Dr. Perkins' political ideals, and addressed to Yuan 
Shih Kai in 1902, will be read with interest. It should 
be added that the Governor thanked Dr. Perkins for 
the letter, while Minister Conger, to whom a copy was 
sent, gave it high commendation. Copies of the letter 
were placed in the hands of other influential men and 
sent into Shansi, Shantung, and Peking. Dr. Perkins 
was invited to meet Prince Su of the royal family and 
subsequently the criminal judge of Peking, a man 
of the highest reputation, who declared himself to be 
on the side of radical reform. Somewhat later, to aid 
in the work of reform, Dr. Perkins translated the Con- 
stitution of the United States, which was printed and 
put into circulation. 

It will be seen that Dr. Perkins' services as a mis- 
sionary were of a varied sort. Up to the year of 1900 
his work had been a mixture of evangelism, medicine, 
and surgery. Since that time he has taken great in- 
terest in the question as to how China may be reformed 
politically. His letters published in the Missionary 
Herald bear witness to his zeal in recommending the 
enlargement of the missionary work in China and to his 
intelligent interest in all that pertains to the future wel- 
fare of the people. 

Dr. Perkins and family are at present (1914) in 
this country, having withdrawn from the Board, and re- 
side at Westboro, Massachusetts. 

He was married at Tientsin, North China, October 
29, 1885, to Miss Estella L. Akers, M.D., formerly of 
the American Methodist Mission. She is daughter of 

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Williams College and Missions 

Granville and Julia (De Shon) Akers, and grand- 
daughter of William and Sarah (Jones) Akers and of 
Peter and Hannah (Pennell) De Shon. 

Of seven children born to them, five are living: — 
Anna E., a trained nurse; Henry B., a student of ag- 
riculture in Cornell University; Granville A., a grad- 
uate of Cornell University; Susan P., a student; Myles 
Standish, student in Worcester High School. 

The following letter, written by Dr. Perkins to the 
Chi-li Governor, to which reference has been made in 
this sketch, explains itself, and may fittingly find place 
here, as giving one phase of Dr. Perkins' influence in 
the affairs of China. 

Pao-Ting-Fu, February 1, 1902. 
To the Governor-General Yuan Shih Kai. 
Sir:— 
I have not thus far ventured to call on you, know- 
ing your official cares to be great, especially at this 
time of the year. But I do not like to defer longer 
some expression of thanks to you for your protection 
of so many foreigners last year. My own station was 
at Lin Ching Chou, which, because of your despatch 
and the telegram of Consul Fowler, I left under es- 
cort on the 23d of the 5th moon. In Chi Nan Fu, 
your guard furnished to Mr. Hamilton and myself 
was a very strong barrier between ourselves and no 
small danger. It was also owing to your purpose that 
so few Christians were put to death after you came 
into the Province. Your position was a very difficult 
one, and I wish to assure you of my very cordial ap- 
preciation of your action all through those dark months. 
Although you have left Shan-tung, I wish to speak 
a few good words for Hsieh T'ai-Chang. He was a 
good friend to us all the winter before, and kept us from 
attack. After my departure, he would have saved our 

[572] 



Biographical Sketches 

houses, if the Chou had listened to his counsel. He has 
now been recalled from Lintsing, but I should be glad 
if he can have some other appointment. 

Besides thanking you — Sir — for your protection I 
often ask myself what I can do for you to show my 
gratitude. Should you ever be in a position where my 
services would be of any help to you, I am sure I should 
be glad to do you such service. 

But my greatest care is to do that which shall please 
Shang Ti, who is our Father in Heaven. And how 
can I do this better than by trying to do a good act 
toward China and toward all the Father's children in 
this great land? If we can only have in our hearts 
something of his love for this people, it must be that 
we can do a good deed which shall be for all. He is 
always seeking to put his love into our hearts and to 
give us his thoughts. If these thoughts below are even 
like his, then there should be great good in them. May 
I ask you to give them your careful attention ? 

China is a great Empire. She has a wonderful his- 
tory. God has taught her many great lessons through 
her sages and wise men. He is never tired in his 
teaching, but wishes always to add to it. On the other 
hand, when we compare the China of to-day with the 
nations of the West, we see that China is weak. She 
does not know how to meet the new issues that are 
forcing themselves upon her. It is also probably true 
that the Western nations that are advancing into China 
do not at all understand what they are doing, as it will 
effect this country. But is it not probable that lines of 
rail built by foreign money and guarded by foreign sol- 
diers, leading to mines to be opened under foreign man- 
agement, will surely result in the division of the 
Empire, unless some strong force prevent? 

What then can be done? If you attack these for- 
eign people, their troops will attack you. If you de- 

[573] 



Williams College and Missions 

stroy their rail lines, they will be rebuilt at your expense. 
Besides this they are most useful to the people for 
passage and for trade, otherwise they would not use 
them. 

China, it seems to me, will gain nothing by con- 
tending against the foreigner, wherever he is doing 
work that tends to increase her prosperity; rather let 
her assist him. But at the same time she must seek 
with all her power to make herself strong. Let her 
work with the foreigner, but even more, plan for a 
strong and united Empire. Only in this way can she 
make his work prove to be a contribution to her own 
greatness and helpful to her speedy entrance into the 
family of the great nations. 

How shall China become strong? There are many 
ways. Permit me to outline one way, which is not a 
theory but already practised by all the great nations, 
except Russia; and recognized by them as one of 
the chief sources of their strength. I refer to the 
National Assembly, chosen by the people, meeting 
annually, and deciding upon certain questions re- 
ferred to them. 

Because this assembly is elected by the people, its 
members know what the people wish and what they are 
willing to do in regard to the great questions that con- 
front the kingdom. 

Because of their power to decide, the Government 
and especially its head, the Emperor, is relieved of 
much responsibility. 

And because the people choose this body, they feel 
that its decisions are theirs, and gladly make efforts 
and sacrifices for their land and country, which they 
would make grudgingly or not at all under authority 
from above. Such a body, too, coming from all parts 
of the kingdom, and acting together for the common 
good, unifies the country as nothing else can. 

[ 574 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

The powers given to this assembly are different 
in various countries according to the abilities of the 
representatives to deal with the matters committed 
to them. 

Will you permit me to say to you that it seems to 
me an opportune time to begin this task of uniting the 
good-will and energy of the four hundred million peo- 
ple in this land in the great and worthy cause of unit- 
ing the eighteen provinces, and the building up of the 
nation ? If this is not done, I see no other outlook than 
the gradual division of the Empire among Russia, 
France, Germany, and perhaps other countries. If it 
is done, together with other measures directed to the 
same end, there appears to be a good probability that 
in spite of what is now being done, China will, after 
some years, come out her own master and an equal 
among the other great nations. 

To attain this end, is not the sacrifice of any 
desire for gain or any personal ambition of small 
account? Jesus said, he who would be great must 
serve men. Is not this to serve all the people of this 
great land ? 

Only a few years ago Japan was a country of small 
significance. Her people were called Wo Ren by the 
Chinese. In the year 1889 it adopted a popular con- 
stitution. In 1899, by new treaties with the other na- 
tions, she became an equal member in the family of the 
great nations. From that time she has controlled her 
own tariff, while the country is also entirely open to 
foreigners. She is now seeking for others to enter her 
country and become permanent residents. 

China was once the teacher of Japan, and gave to 
it both her written character and her Confucian books, 
which for centuries were her leading light. Now that 
the pupil has made progress that is the admiration of 
the wo^ld why should not the teacher go at least as far 

[575] 



Williams College and Missions 

and take a place that will demand the respect of every 
one? 

The Government of the United States is much 
more representative than that of Japan, and is even 
stronger, almost leading the nations in the real 
strength of her government. 

It is evident that in China the suffrage can not for 
a long time be general. What I would propose is that 
one man be elected by each hundred families; that at 
a given date these men assemble in the district cities; 
that this assembly be presided over by the District 
magistrate, it to elect from its own number represen- 
tatives to the Prefectural city, who are at that city to 
choose two representatives or members of the National 
Parliament. These members should not be chosen 
from the officials holding office, but from those non- 
officials who should be most acceptable to the people. 

At a given date, these representatives should meet 
at the National Capital, there to do the work which the 
Emperor should indicate. 

Certain pressing questions are already before the 
nation, such as measures for the defence of Chinese ter- 
ritory, and measures for the fulfilment of obligations 
already entered into. As to new obligations the Em- 
peror would naturally consult with his cabinet and Con- 
gress. Thus the responsibility for new measures 
would not fall on one man alone, but be divided among 
many and these chosen by the people. 

This is sufficient to give you an outline of my 
thoughts. Many changes would doubtless have to be 
made in details, upon fuller discussion. But my pres- 
ent hope is that it be discussed, at first by your honor- 
able selves, and later by certain foreigners who are in 
a position to look at the question without prejudice. I 
believe there are such, and that they are more ready to 
assist you than you perhaps imagine. 

[576] 



Biographical Sketches 

CLASS OF 1880 

Willis Waldo Mead was born in Fayetteville, 
New York, March 9, 1854. He was the son of George 
and Cornelia A. (Northrup) Mead and the grandson 
of Michael and Dolly (Thompson) Mead, and of 
Kneeland and Hannah (Hauser) Northrup. His an- 
cestors, on both sides, were of English stock. His 
father was a farmer by occupation. With the qualities 
of honesty, kindness, and patriotism in his nature were 
combined industry and thoroughness. 

The son fitted for college at the Buffalo Classical 
School, and entered college in 1876. 

In college he was a member of the Philotechnian 
Society, in which he held at different times the offices 
of vice-president, secretary, and librarian; of the Mills 
Young Men's Christian Association, in which he was 
a director and a secretary; of the German Club; and 
of the Williams Dramatic Club. He also belonged to 
the class musical organization and to the Class Foot- 
ball Team. He was a superior scholar, receiving an 
honorable mention in Greek, and graduating with Phi 
Beta Kappa rank. He was one of the speakers at Com- 
mencement, the subject of his oration being "Hero 
Worship." 

After graduation he spent a year as night superin- 
tendent of the Continental Telegraph Company, and 
then entered Hartford Theological Seminary, where he 
was graduated as Bachelor of Divinity in 1884. He 
then was ordained and for one year was pastor of Con- 
gregational churches in Clarion and Eagle Grove, 
Iowa. In 1885-86 he was pastor at Sibley, Iowa. 
Receiving an appointment under the American Board, 
he sailed from Boston for Turkey September 16, 1886, 
reaching Marash, where he was to be stationed, October 
30. He was subsequently stationed at Adana, from 
which place he wrote to the Missionary Herald in 1889, 

[ 577 ] , 



Williams College and Missions 

of the famine and the poverty of the people. In the 
following year, Mr. Mead's letters tell of unusual re- 
ligious interest, of large congregations, and of encour- 
aging accessions to the church. 

In April, 1893, Mr. Mead was compelled by ill 
health to return to the United States, and arrived in 
Boston June 11 of that year. He returned to his post 
in Adana in January, 1896. This was the year which 
followed the series of massacres and outrages which had 
their prelude in the massacre in Constantinople Sep- 
tember 30, 1895. Mr. Mead's letters give evidence of 
the unrest and anxiety. On January 6 he wrote from 
Adana: "The situation here, as also in Tarsus, is still 
one of great uneasiness ; no one dares to expect that we 
have passed the crisis, so much depends on conditions 
that may change at any time. Much depends also on 
the temper, caprice, or firmness of a single man, — gov- 
ernor, chief of police, or prominent civilian. The 
Lord seems to have interposed more than once. The 
people are in great fear and anxiety. Our hearts and 
minds are full of peace." One of his last letters from 
his mission field, written in 1898, gave an interesting 
account of the ordination of a native pastor at 
Adana in presence of an audience of nearly 3000. 
It was in this year that, on account of Mrs. Mead's 
health, he returned again to the United States, 
and in 1899, finding themselves unable > to rejoin 
their mission they resigned their connection with the 
Board. 

Mr. Mead was married at Constantinople, Septem- 
ber 30, 1888, to Miss Harriet Newell Childs of Boston, 
then a missionary at Marash. Mrs. Mead is daughter 
of John Lusk and Sara V. (Merriam) Childs, and 
granddaughter of Jonathan and Cynthia (Lusk) 
Childs, and of Isaac and Jane (McLean) Merriam, 
and is descended from English and Dutch ancestors. 

[578] 



Biographical Sketches 

Mr. Mead resides in Tompkinsville, Staten Island, 
New York City. 

He has published "The Apocalypse of Jesus 
Christ," New York (1908). 



CLASS OF 1881 

George Allchin, son of William and Frances 
(Hawes) Allchin, was born at Plumstead, Kent, Eng- 
land, January 10, 1852. Mr. Allchin left England 
for America when young and resided some years in 
Guelph, Ontario. He prepared for McGill Univer- 
sity, Canada, under private tutors but did not enter. 
For two years he was secretary of the Y. M. C. A. in 
Guelph, and left this work to enter upon theological 
studies at Bangor Seminary, where he was graduated 
in 1880. He then entered Williams and took the 
studies of Senior year with the class of 1881. Mr. All- 
chin was greatly interested in music while in college, 
and was a member of the Glee Club and of the chapel 
choir. 

After leaving college he became acting pastor of the 
Congregational Church in South Natick, Massachu- 
setts, where he remained until he received an appoint- 
ment from the American Board, being assigned to the 
Japan Mission. He and his wife departed from New 
York August 5, 1882, and on November 12 reached 
Osaka, where they were to be stationed. Mr. Allchin's 
skill in music enabled him to become immediately use- 
ful in teaching sacred music, even while he was learning 
the language and before he could preach to the natives 
in their own tongue. He found fields white already 
with harvest. 

Under date of May 26, 1884, he wrote concerning 
the progress of Christianity in Osaka within the decade 
of its existence : "Last week this church held its tenth 

[579] 



Williams College and Missions 

anniversary, and the progress which Christianity has 
made in Osaka since the church was formed is a good 
illustration of the growth of Christianity throughout 
Japan during this time. Ten years ago there were 
seven baptized Christians in Osaka; now there are over 
350 in Congregational churches alone. Then they did 
not have a church building; now they own three com- 
fortable churches, and money is being gathered for the 
fourth. Then there was no native pastor; now we have 
three, and the fourth is to be ordained next month. 
Two of these pastors are graduates of the school in 
Kyoto, where there was neither school nor missionary 
ten years ago. Then this little band of Christians had 
only the Gospel of John translated into their own lan- 
guage; now they have well-bound copies of the whole 
of the New Testament and many books of the Old. 
Then they had no hymn-book; now they have a large 
selection of Japanese hymns set to foreign tunes, and 
three of the churches own organs that are played by 
native young women. Great indeed is the change in 
so short a time." Three years later than this Mr. 
Allchin wrote of the erection of a new church and 
of plans for the enlargement of three others which 
were not large enough to accommodate all who 
wished to go. In the same letter he writes of 
the girls' school with its 170 scholars, of the es- 
tablishment of an industrial school, which started 
with 130 pupils, and of a young men's school 
under the care of the First Church with about 100 
scholars. 

One of the movements described by Mr. Allchin 
for reaching the masses was the establishment of a 
"Missionary Army," which apparently bore some like- 
ness to the Salvation Army. Some of the duties of the 
"Army" were: the forming of clubs and societies; hold- 
ing rallies at the churches, and distributing every week 

[580] 



Biographical Sketches 

thousands of leaflets containing brief statements of the 
main teachings of Christianity. 

The value and efficiency of Mr. Allchin's work as 
a missionary have been greatly increased by his musical 
talents. He has been conspicuous in the development 
of music in the Christian schools and churches of Japan. 
He has not only made hymns but has sung them, and 
been a teacher of music in his home, in the schools, and 
in the churches. He has led the singing at all the great 
religious conferences, and sung solos (in Japanese) 
everywhere in the land. In connection with his preach- 
ing in Japanese, he has been very prominent and very 
successful in the use of the stereopticon, giving illus- 
trated lectures in halls and theatres, as well as in 
churches throughout the country. In the Missionary 
Herald is an account of an evangelistic tour which Mr. 
Allchin made through the island of Kyushu, where he 
made use of the lantern and preached thirty-one nights 
to audiences numbering in the aggregate over 15,000. 

With a bent for practical affairs, which is so valu- 
able a quality in the life of a missionary, Mr. Allchin 
was called upon, soon after going to Japan, to make 
plans for schools, and halls, and houses for missionaries, 
thus becoming a kind of semi-professional architect. 
Thus, in connection with his work as a missionary he 
has cultivated three specialties, — music, including 
hymn-book making; architecture, and illustrated 
lectures. 

Mr. Allchin has written for the Missionary Herald 
some articles and many letters of great interest con- 
cerning his work and the Japanese people. Especially 
notable is an article which appeared in the Herald for 
1910, entitled "The New Evangelism in Osaka." The 
article gives an account of the evangelistic efforts 
which culminated in the baptism of 355 adults in the six 
Congregational churches of Osaka. Although there 

[581] 



Williams College and Missions 

had been held meetings in the various churches and 
some mass meetings attended by over 2000 people in 
the public hall, the public addresses made in these 
places were not so potent in the movement as the per- 
sonal visit in the homes and the personal work done with 
individuals. The work done in the Congregational 
churches spread to other denominations, and during five 
nights of special services in the Congregational 
churches, meetings were held simultaneously in most 
of the forty-two churches and chapels in the city, at- 
tended by upwards of 15,000 people. The movement 
here described has not only quickened the churches, and 
given encouragement to the Christians, but has given 
to Christianity great prestige in Japan. 

In the thirty years of service in Japan, Mr. Allchin 
has visited the United States three times: 1891-92, 
1901-02, and 1910-11. In 1911 he attended the reun- 
ion of his class on the thirtieth anniversary of their 
graduation and was one of the speakers at the Hay- 
stack Prayer Meeting, in Mission Park. 

On June 29, 1882, Mr. Allchin was married to 
Nellie M. Stratton, daughter of D. D. Stratton and 
Frances M. (Small) Stratton, of Melrose, Massachu- 
setts, granddaughter of John and Agnes (SanderhofT) 
Stratton, and of Dr. Jonathan and Dolly (Holt) 
Small, and a descendant of John Stratton,. who came 
at an early period from England to Watertown, Mas- 
sachusetts. They have five children: Florence S. 
Inglehart, wife of Rev. Charles W. Inglehart, mission- 
ary of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Sendai, 
Japan; Stanley D. Allchin, in business in Buenos 
Ayres; Marion F. Allchin, a teacher under the Amer- 
ican Board in Osaka, Japan; Agnes M. and Louise 
Bell Allchin, students at school in this country. 

Mr. Allchin has written and published in pamphlet 
form the first history of Christian hymnology in 

[ 582 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

Japan. He with other members of a committee has 
devoted years of service to the production of three 
Japanese Hymn-books; the first being published in 
1890; the second in 1906; and the third in 1910. Of 
the second volume it was reported that over 100,000 
copies had been sold. 

Stanley Ketcham Phraner, son of Rev. Dr. 
Wilson and Bruyn (Smith) Phraner, was born May 
26, 1860, in Sing Sing, New York, where the father, 
who is widely known as a preacher, was then settled. 
The son made a public profession of faith at the age of 
fifteen in the Presbyterian Church of Sing Sing, of 
which his father was then pastor. He received his pre- 
paratory education in the Mount Pleasant Academy, 
of the same place, and in 1877 entered the Freshman 
class of Princeton College. In 1878 he went west, 
where he spent a year, and then entered Williams Col- 
lege, where he remained from 1879 to 1881, leaving be- 
fore the close of his Senior year. In college he was a 
member of the baseball and football teams, and be- 
longed to the Sextette of '81. He then went west again, 
where he engaged in farming, leading an outdoor life, 
and gaining a knowledge of men and business affairs 
that proved useful to him in subsequent years. In 1887 
he went to New Rochelle, New York, where, connecting 
himself with the First Presbyterian Church, he became 
active in the Young People's Society and the Sunday- 
school of the church, and also labored with usefulness 
among the soldiers of the United States Recruiting 
Depot on David's Island. He there reorganized a 
mission which had been discontinued for several years, 
establishing it upon a permanent basis. His efforts 
in this work were highly appreciated by those who were 
benefited, his zeal and cheerful Christian faith winning 
him many friends. 

[ 583 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

In the fall of the same year, having decided to fit 
himself for the gospel ministry, he entered Princeton 
Theological Seminary, where he took the full three 
year course, graduating in 1890. Having consecrated 
himself, while in the seminary, to the work of foreign 
missions, and having been assigned by the Board to the 
Laos field, he was on July 24 of 1890 ordained as an 
evangelist at New Rochelle by the Presbytery of West- 
chester. He had been licensed by the same Presbytery 
on the 21st of the preceding January. On August 5 
of the same year he sailed with his wife for the Laos 
country, and after a long and trying journey reached 
his field and was stationed at Cheung Mai. He soon 
acquired the native language, and began the work of 
supplying the various churches within the bounds of 
the station, and of itinerating around the country, in 
all of which work he found great pleasure and met with 
good success. He showed great aptitude for the va- 
ried work of a missionary, and seemed especially well 
adapted to the work of that field. He was seriously 
hindered in his work, however, by poor health, and after 
struggling bravely against disease for a year, he was 
reluctantly persuaded, by the advice of the physicians 
of the mission, to return to America for rest and treat- 
ment. He started home on December 21, 1894, but 
died on the way of hepatic abscess, the 15th of the fol- 
lowing month, at Singapore, Straits Settlements, in the 
35th year of his age. "His brief but devoted life as a 
missionary is a rich legacy to the Church at large, and 
should inspire some of her sons to take up the work he 
has been compelled to lay down." 

He was married on June 9, 1890, at Omaha, Ne- 
braska, to Miss Elizabeth Pennell, who died at Cheung 
Mai, February 12, 1891. He next married July 7, 
1892, at Bangkok, Siam, Miss Eliza Lansing Wester- 
velt, who with two sons survived him. 

[584] 



Biographical Sketches 

CLASS OF 1882 

Alfred Snelling, son of John and Caroline (Kil- 
minster) Snelling, was born in New York City, May 
15, 1855. His parents, who were English, died when 
he was quite young. His inheritance from them was 
a remarkable faith in prayer and a nice sense of justice. 
The children, three brothers and a sister, after some 
years went to Missouri with some friends, Alfred living 
for a time in St. Joseph, where he was converted 
through the preaching of A. B. Earle. For a time he 
read law, expecting to make that his profession, but 
gave it up and went to work on a farm in Amity, Mis- 
souri, where his brothers were living. Here he united 
with the church. 

Having a strong desire to obtain an education which 
would prepare him for greater usefulness, he entered 
the academy at Kidder, Missouri, and having a special 
talent for mathematics and the languages, he was able 
to prepare himself for Drury College in one year. 
Having no money and no friends to aid him financially, 
he walked from his home, a distance of over 200 miles, 
to Springfield, Missouri, the seat of Drury College. 
After remaining there a year, he entered Williams in 
1878. Here in the first year of his course he broke 
down from overwork, and being obliged to give up 
study, he returned to Missouri. He was still eager to 
make his life one of usefulness, and now had a longing 
to carry the gospel to the heathen. With this purpose, 
he entered Chicago Theological Seminary in 1886, 
where he was graduated in 1888. He was ordained by 
an ecclesiastical council, at Carthage, Missouri, May 9, 
1888, as a foreign missionary, having received an ap- 
pointment from the American Board to go to Micro- 
nesia, to take up the work left by Robert W. Logan, on 
the lagoon of Truk. On June 3 of the same year he 
was married at Amity, to Elizabeth M., daughter of 

[585 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

John Belcher and Deborah F. (Birdsall) Weymer, 
and on the following day started on his long journey. 
On arriving at San Francisco, Mrs. Snelling was taken 
sick and by the advice of physicians was dissuaded 
from continuing the journey then. Though permis- 
sion was given by the Board for both to remain in this 
country for another year, it was decided that Mr. Snell- 
ing should go on, while his wife would hope to join 
him by the next trip of the Morning Star the following 
year. In a letter written from Honolulu to the church 
at Amity, he said: "You have learned before this that 
Mrs. S. is detained in San Francisco by illness. It is 
a great trial. I try to submit from the heart. If it 
will lead us nearer the Savior we will be satisfied.' ' 
The rest proved advantageous to Mrs. Snelling, who 
with recovered health continued her journey the fol- 
lowing year, having the company of Mrs. Logan, 
who was returning to the islands to take up her 
work. 

Mr. Snelling remained a few days in Honolulu, 
where he was the guest of Rev. Hiram Bingham, and 
where he met the widow of Rev. Titus Coan. He 
sailed in the Morning Star, July 14, and stopping for 
a time at Kusaie, and at Ponape, reached Truk and 
the station Anapauo August 14. Mrs.. Snelling 
reached the station September 20 of the following 
year. 

Truk is a large lagoon about 100 miles by 40, lying 
thirty-one miles west of Ponape. It has ten large is- 
lands (some nearly 300 feet high), and many islets. 
The islands are very fertile and well supplied with 
food. They form part of the Caroline group. The 
population of Truk and the Mortlocks is 15,000. 
Missionary work on Ponape and Kusaie (Caroline 
group) was begun in 1852 by three American mission- 
aries (L. H. Gulick, A. A. Sturges, and B. G. Snow), 

[ 686] 



Biographical Sketches 

with their wives. In 1884, Robert W. Logan, who 
went as a missionary of the American Board to Micro- 
nesia, and, after residing a time on Ponape, went in 
1879 to the Mortlock Islands, took up his residence 
within the Truk Archipelago, where he accomplished a 
wonderful work, and where he died in 1887. It was 
this labor into which Mr. Snelling entered, though in 
the months that had elapsed since the death of Mr. 
Logan and the return of Mrs. Logan to the States, the 
morals of the people had become low, and the church 
and school had dwindled away. In reporting the fruit 
of his second year, Mr. Snelling wrote: "At the Truk 
lagoon the work is moving on slowly. In every station 
new churches or schoolhouses, or repairs, have been un- 
dertaken and are being successfully pushed. One 
church of fifty members organized and additions to all 
the churches are reported. These churches are under 
the care of native teachers but under our direction. I 
have assisted in receiving ninety-seven into church 
membership. Of these some will go back. Others are 
waiting to be received. Our school is prospering." 
About this time he erected a church building which 
would seat 500 people and a new building for the girls' 
school. In 1891 he writes of the organization of a 
church of fifteen members on a small island, Fana, and 
of his visit to the Mortlock group of islands, which he 
was enabled to accomplish with the aid of the mission- 
ary schooner, Robert TV. Logan. In many places he 
found the work greatly hindered by wars among differ- 
ent tribes, but he was often able to establish peace be- 
tween the warring chiefs, and in most places found 
reasons for encouragement. From Anapauo, the report 
for the same year spoke of the baptism of nine persons, 
of an average Sabbath attendance of 275 at worship 
and of about 185 at Sabbath-school, an increase of 
about thirty per cent, while the common school had in- 

[587] 



Williams College and Missions 

creased from thirty-five to forty-eight. His letters 
often speak of the spirit of self-sacrifice and consecra- 
tion manifested by some of the people. 

In attending to the great variety of work that came 
upon him, Mr. Snelling did not spare himself, though 
at no time enjoying robust health. On February 8, 
1891, Mrs. Snelling wrote of her husband: "He has 
been doing the work of three men, teaching school five 
days in a week, six hours a day, holding a morning and 
evening meeting every day, a native prayer meeting 
every Wednesday afternoon, and one in English Thurs- 
day afternoons, generally going out in the boat on 
Saturdays to visit some of the substations, preaching 
Sunday mornings from nine to ten, superintending and 
teaching in the Sunday-school that followed, also teach- 
ing a class in the Catechism from three to four, and con- 
ducting another meeting at sunset. Also working on 
his translation of the book of Leviticus into the Truk 
language every night, with one of his most advanced 
training-school scholars to help him. And every spare 
minute during the week he was at work on the girls' 
school building, the boys helping him. These native 
boys learn very quickly to handle tools and I sometimes 
think would excel American boys if they had the same 
chance. " 

Not only did success attend his labors at Anapauo, 
but the work on the islands to the west and north pros- 
pered. In 1894, on the Mortlocks with a population 
of less than 5000 there was a total of 860 church mem- 
bers and 863 in schools. 

In 1895, through some disagreement or misunder- 
standing, the Prudential Committee deemed it best for 
Mr. Snelling to terminate his connection with the Board 
and return to the United States. He and Mrs. Snell- 
ing however remained at Anapauo as independent mis- 
sionaries, receiving no salary and only such support as 

[ 588 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

the natives could furnish. Among other agencies 
which he employed in his independent work was the 
Christian Endeavor Society which he organized among 
the young men in 1899. This was the beginning of a 
great revival which continued for several months, ex- 
tending to other stations and resulting in the addition 
of many to the church. 

In 1891 they removed to the island of Tatu or 
Farik, about seven miles from their former station. 
The island, which was small and uninhabited, had been 
secured from the German Governor, located at Ponape, 
with the intention of taking the schools there where the 
pupils would be free from the influences of heathenism. 
Here Mr. Snelling put up his house, erected school 
buildings and planted cocoanut trees, hoping to make 
the island sufficiently productive to cover the expenses 
of the mission. At the end of a year it was found that 
the expenses were a little less than $150, only ten dol- 
lars of which came from outside the mission. Some 
idea of the inexpensiveness of living there may be gained 
from the statement that $150 supported twelve teach- 
ers and their families, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Snelling 
and four families and eleven boys and girls with them. 
On August 8, 1903, Mr. Snelling wrote: "We are la- 
boring on, with an increasing work. We are building 
three new houses for new families, and more are anx- 
ious to come. This school work is our stronghold. It 
means hard blows against heathenism. We have a 
choice company of young people with us, a tried lot. 
We have great hope for solid results when these go out 
into the work. A few weeks ago all our buildings 
were crowded with people who had come for a season 
of refreshing. Our little church building was filled 
and a large number came after the last meeting was 
over. The Spirit was with us in opening up the truth 
and dividing it to each as they had need." 

[589] 



Williams College and Missions 

Mr. Snelling's last letter was dated March 3. 1905. 
ten days after which he started on the voyage which 
proved to be his last. On March 13 he left home on his 

boat Amauau to visit the islands to the west, taking 
with him fifteen or sixteen others, among them the old 
Christian chief of one of the islands and two teachers 
for the islands. In starting to return home ten days 
later, the party, sixteen in all. among them six scholars 
for the school from Uman. encountered a terrible storm 
in which they became lost. It was fifty-one days before 
they could rind land and more than eight months 
elapsed before two of the party, who had been on 
the boat, appeared at the mission and reported the 
circumstances. The messenger said that after wander- 
ing rifty-one days and nights upon the great deep they 
reached the island of Aurupek. where they were treated 
by the natives with the greatest kindness. A few days 
before the death of Mr. Snelling a chief from Oleai. an 
island at some distance, came to Aurupek. looking for a 
boat, and reported that there were Japanese traders and 
a Japanese doctor on Oleai. and that trading vessels 
sometimes stopped there. At the request of Mr. Snel- 
ling he and his party were taken there. He was re- 
ceived into the home of the Japanese and was most 
tenderly cared for. but nine days later, on July 4. 1905. 
he died, at the age of 50. The island of Oleai. where 
he died and where he was buried, lies 500 miles west of 
Truk. 

The diary which Mr. Snelling kept during the days 
of his drifting and for a month after his reaching land, 
was preserved by the two messengers, and has been 
printed in full in the Memorial of Mr. Snelling pub- 
lished by his brother in 1909. This Memorial is the 
story of a life inspired by implicit faith in the commands 
and promises of the Master and heroically lived in his 
service. 



Biographical Sketches 

CLASS OF 188.5 

Elmer Ernest Count, son of Thomas Henry and 
Polly Ann (Downs) Count, was born at Ellenville, 
Ulster County, New York, December .5, I860. The 
name was originally spelled Caunt. His grandparents 
were Thomas Henry and Rachel (Hutchinson) Caunt 
and George Purdy and Polly Maria (Beardsley) 
Downs. The parents of his father came from England 
in 1830, and settled in Ellenville, New York. On his 
mother's side he traces his ancestry to Stephen Hop- 
kins, who came over in the Mayflower in 1620. His 
great-great-grandfather Downs, among whose descend- 
ants was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, 
was a Commodore in the English Navy. 

Mr. Count's father was a glass-blower by occupa- 
tion. Both his parents were professing Christians, the 
father very strict in his views of temperance and a total 
abstainer from liquors and tobacco, the mother a Puri- 
tan in morals and virtues. 

Mr. Count fitted for college at Williston Seminar}*, 
and entered college as a Freshman in the year 1881. 
In college he was an earnest, active Christian, and was 
one of a band who were accustomed to hold meetings on 
Sunday afternoons in the neighboring factory villages. 
He was a member of the Philologian Society, of which 
he was, at different times, president, vice-president, and 
treasurer. He was also a member of the Lyceum of 
Xatural History, of which he was for a time treasurer, 
and for a time vice-president. He was a member of the 
Mills Young Men's Christian Association; of the '8-5 
Dramatic Club: of a chess club; and of a football 
team. 

The year after graduation, Mr. Count spent in busi- 
ness and working as an assistant to the secretaries of the 
Y. M. C. A. in New York City. But the feeling that 
he had when he was converted at the age of fourteen or 

[591] 



Williams College and Missions 

fifteen, that he ought to study for the ministry, now 
came over him with convincing power, and he entered 
Drew Theological Seminary in the autumn of 1886. 
Here he spent three years, at the same time serving for 
one year as pastor of a church at Parsippany, and an- 
other year at Chester, New Jersey. On the completion 
of his course in theology he received an appointment 
from the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church, of which he was a member, and was sent 
to Italy. He arrived in Italy the latter part of June 
in 1889 and took up his residence in Florence. For two 
years he was a teacher in the theological school of the 
Methodist Mission in that city, and was then sent to 
Rome to establish the publishing interests of the Mis- 
sion. Towards the end of his first year in his new posi- 
tion he contracted the ' 'Roman fever" and was sent back 
to Florence in the spring of 1892. Finding it difficult 
to be rid of his disease while remaining in Italy, by ad- 
vice of physicians he asked and received permission to 
return to America. The year 1893-94 was spent in re- 
cuperating at the home of his parents at Ellenville, 
New York. Finding himself sufficiently strong to re- 
sume work, in April, 1894, he was appointed to the pas- 
torate of St. John's Methodist Episcopal Church on 
West 53d Street, New York City, which was to be 
closed as a separate church and to be united with the 
Methodist church on West 43d Street. A new church, 
which combined these two, was built on West 48th 
Street. After completing the work, and declining a call 
to another important church in New York City, he was 
sent to be pastor of the Methodist Church in Carmel, 
New York. During the years 1897-1900 he was pastor 
of a church at Irvington-on-the-Hudson, and then for 
three more years pastor of a church in Warwick, New 
York. He was next called to Marlborough, New 
York, where he remained till March, 1905, when he re- 

[592] 



Biographical Sketches 

ceived the appointment of Superintendent of the Mis- 
sion of the Methodist Church in Bulgaria. The head- 
quarters of the Mission at that time were at Rustchuk, 
where he remained until October, 1908, when the head- 
quarters were removed to Sofia, where he has since re- 
sided. On account of ill health he with his family spent 
the spring and summer of 1908 in this country. To the 
office of Superintendent of the Mission there has been 
added more recently the office of Treasurer. 

Mr. Count received the degree of Bachelor of Di- 
vinity from Drew Theological Seminary in 1889, and 
that of Master of Arts in 1896 from New York Univer- 
sity for post-graduate work done on the history of 
philosophy and comparative religions. He was con- 
tinuing post-graduate work in New York University 
in the course leading to the degree of Ph. D., his thesis 
being the ''Philosophy of Giordano Bruno," when his 
course was interrupted by illness. The Missouri Wes- 
leyan College honored him with the degree of Doctor 
of Divinity in 1909. 

Dr. Count was married in Carmel, New York, June 
24, 1897, to Miss Viette E., daughter of Myron and 
Maria (Babcock) Thompson, and granddaughter of 
John and Sarah (Westfall) Thompson and of Charles 
and Lavinia (Goodrich) Babcock, and a descendant of 
Duncan Thompson, who came from Scotland to 
America. 

Their children are two sons and tv/o daughters, all 
now in Sofia, Bulgaria: Earl Wendel; Elmer Ernest, 
Jr.; Clara Beardsley; Viette Georgia. 

Dr. Count is the author of numerous articles on sub- 
jects connected with his work. 

David Sctjdder Herrick, son of Rev. James and 
Elizabeth Hopkins (Crosby) Herrick, grandson of 
Nathaniel and Lydia (Eastman) Herrick, and of 

[593] 



Williams College and Missions 

Thomas and Catherine (Burt) Crosby, was born at 
Tirumangalam, South India, March 29, 1863. The 
family traces its descent from Henry Herrick, who 
came from England to Salem, or Beverly, Massa- 
chusetts, in 1629. Among the more distinguished 
ancestors were the English poet, Robert Herrick, 
William Brewster, of Scrooby Manor, England, and 
Stephen Hopkins, the last two being of Mayflower 
fame. 

The father, James Herrick, graduated at this col- 
lege in 1841, and with the exception of three years spent 
in this country, he was from 1846 to 1883 the devoted 
missionary of the American Board in Madura, India. 
His marked characteristics were hopefulness, piety, and 
diligence. James Frederick Herrick, a brother of the 
subject of this sketch, graduated at this college in 1875. 
A son of James Frederick, bearing his name, is a mem- 
ber of the class of 1914. 

David Scudder Herrick fitted for college at the 
Newton High School and entered the Freshman class 
at Williams in 1881. The class of 1885, the first to 
enter under the administration of President Franklin 
Carter, was considerably larger than preceding classes, 
and had many members of superior ability. Among 
Mr. Herrick's classmates were George Stuart Duncan, 
Harry A., and James It. Garfield, William M. Gros- 
venor, Stephen B. L. Penrose, Henry B. Ward, and 
Bentley Wirt Warren. In college Mr. Herrick was a 
member of the Philologian Society, and of the Young 
Men's Christian Association. He was interested in col- 
lege athletics, being a member of the Williams Athletic 
Association, of the Class Football Team, and of the 
"Hare and Hounds," and winning the half-mile and 
mile runs at the Athletic Meet in October, 1884. He 
was an earnest Christian man and a superior scholar, 
receiving a Rice Book prize at the end of Sopho- 

[ 594] 



Biograph ical Sketch cs 

more year, and the first prize in French at the end of 
Junior year, and graduating with Phi Beta Kappa 
rank. 

In the fall of 1885, Mr. Scudder went to India 
under engagement with the American Board, and 
taught in Pasumalai College, the institution connected 
with the Madura Mission. For a part of the time, dur- 
ing the absence of Dr. Washburn in America, he acted 
as principal of the college. In a letter written about 
this time to the class secretary, he gives the following 
description of his surroundings. "Perhaps/' says he, 
"you'd like to know what sort of a country this is. 
Well, just here we are in a large plain, stretching away 
fifty miles or more to the sea on the east, farther yet 
on the south and northeast, but bounded on the west 
by a high range of mountains, the highest of which are 
about fifty miles from here ; lower ones fill up the inter- 
vening space so that only twelve miles or so intervene 
between us and some very respectable hills. Detached 
hills and rocks there are in abundance, two of which, 
about 300 or 400 feet high, are behind our house. About 
a mile and a half off is a solid granite rock, 400 feet or 
more in height and two or three miles in circumference. 
There is only one way to go up and that is mostly by 
steps laid or cut in the rock. On the very tip-top is a 
Mohammedan mosque, where Alexander the Great is 
said to have been buried. Off in front of the house the 
rice fields stretch for miles. Everything is very beauti- 
ful now, as we are in the midst of the rainy season. If 
you were to go up on the hill back of the house you 
would get a beautiful view, distant mountains, green 
rice fields, groves of trees scattered here and there, wav- 
ing palms, and everywhere dotted about a multitude of 
tanks now full or half full of water, looking like minia- 
ture lakes. We live in a house made high and airy of 
solid brick, with large rooms and a wide veranda on 

[ 595 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

three sides and a part of a fourth; all this is necessary 
for coolness. " 

In the summer of 1890, Mr. Herrick returned to 
America, and in the autumn of the same year entered 
Union Theological Seminary, at which he graduated in 

1893. In the last year of his seminary course he was 
"approved to preach" by the Brooklyn Association. On 
graduation, in recognition of his superior scholarship, 
he was appointed alternate for the Fellowship, the ap- 
pointee being Rev. J. W. Platner. Private means be- 
ing provided which enabled him to study a year abroad, 
Mr. Herrick matriculated at the University of Oxford, 
England, where he remained in residence four terms, 
attending various lectures, among which especially were 
those of Principal Fairbairn of Mansfield College. At 
the same time he studied privately with the Tamil 
scholar, Rev. G. U. Pope, D.D., under whose super- 
vision he translated the "First Catechism of Tamil 
Grammar," which was brought out by the Clarendon 
Press. Returning to this country in the summer of 

1894, he was ordained September 25 of the same year, 
in the Eliot Congregational Church in Newton, Massa- 
chusetts, and sailed with his wife from Vancouver for 
India by the way of Japan, on the 15th of the. following 
month, arriving at Madura January 8, 1895. Here he 
was appointed to a position in the Mission High School 
and while teaching pursued also the study of Tamil. 
Having passed the required examination in this lan- 
guage during the year, he was appointed in January, 
1896, to the full charge of the Madura High School. 
In May of that year, owing to the illness of one of the 
missionaries, he was given charge of the station at Bat- 
talagundu, taking up his residence there while still re- 
taining charge of the Madura High School, in which 
he taught regularly for a year. After about two years 
he was able to turn over the charge of the high school 

[596] 



Biographical Sketches 

to another and to devote himself to general missionary 
work in the Battalagundu station. In 1902-03, during 
the absence of Rev. J. E. Tracy (Williams 1874), in 
America, Mr. Herrick was given charge of the station 
at Periakulam, in addition to his other work. A part 
of the year 1904-05 was spent in America, he returning 
to his field in the fall of the latter year. 

Mr. Herrick's work in Madura was the charge of the 
station together with teaching and other work in the 
American College, the successor of Pasumalai Col- 
lege. Besides these duties he had part in the 
movement looking towards an union among the dif- 
ferent missions and denominations on the mission field, 
and was made secretary of the South India United 
Church at its first General Assembly in July, 1908. 
Owing to failure of health, he spent the fall and winter 
of 1909-10 in Southern California, returning to Ma- 
dura in the fall of the latter year. He was then 
appointed to work in the North Circle of the mis- 
sion, covering an area which had a population of 
555,000 souls; and in July was entrusted with the 
full charge of this work as Chairman of the North 
Circle Committee. Mr. Herrick's most recent appoint- 
ment .is to a professorship in the United Theologi- 
cal College at Bangalore, the American Board 
having consented to undertake the support of the 
chair. 

He received the degree of Master of Arts from this 
College in 1894. 

Mr. Herrick was married in Winchester, Massa- 
chusetts, September 26, 1894, to Dency, daughter of 
James Pierce and Eliza (Marvin) Root, granddaugh- 
ter of William Shepard and Maria (Talbot) Root and 
of Thomas and Dency (Tiffany) Marvin, and a de- 
scendant from John Roote, who came from England to 
Farmington, Connecticut, about 1640. They have one 

[597] 



Williams College and Missions 

child, Prudence Tiffany Herrick, a pupil in the New- 
ton High School. 

Besides the "Translation of the First Catechism of 
Tamil Grammar, by G. U. Pope, D.D.," Mr. Herrick 
has published various short articles in the Missionary 
Herald, among them being "A Translation of Hymns 
from the Tamil," "A Village Teacher in the Madura 
Mission," and "A Sairite Catechism." 

Alfred Ernest Street, son of David and Eunice 
(Fawcett) Street, and grandson of Zadok and Sibyl 
(Tatum) Street and of David and Hannah (Ball) 
Fawcett, was born at Salem, Columbiana County, Ohio, 
November 11, 1860. The family is supposed to be of 
German origin, the name being originally Streit. An 
ancestor entered England with William the Conqueror. 
The family seat was Cornwall. The first immigrant 
ancestor in this country was Zadok Street, who settled 
in New Castle, Delaware. Among the more distin- 
guished ancestors were two Quaker ministers, Zadock 
Street, who founded the town of Salem, Ohio, in 1805; 
and Aaron Street, who founded Salem, Tennessee; 
Salem, Illinois; Salem, Indiana; and, in 1837, Salem, 
Iowa. Salem, Oregon, was named in honor of Aaron 
Street, because he furnished the map that guided to that 
region the pioneers led by Mr. Lewellyn. 

The father of Mr. Street, Rev. David Street, is a 
Presbyterian minister residing in Utica, New York. 

The subject of this sketch pursued his preparatory 
studies at Ripon, Wisconsin, and also took part of his 
college course at Ripon College, going through a part 
of the Junior year. He entered the Junior class here 
in the fall of 1883, registering from Van Wert, Ohio. 
He was one of the foremost scholars of his class, receiv- 
ing an honorable mention in the French of Junior year, 
and graduating with Phi Beta Kappa rank. He 

[598] 



Biographical Sketches 

was a member of the Philotechnian Society; of the 
Young Men's Christian Association; and of the Ly- 
ceum of Natural History, in which he was for a time 
curator. He was one of the speakers at Commence- 
ment, his appointment being a Philosophical Oration, 
and the subject of his address being "Law in Modern 
Science. " 

In the fall after graduating, he entered Auburn 
Theological Seminary, intending to enter foreign mis- 
sionary work. Failure of health, however, compelled 
him for a time to drop all mental work. For a time 
he engaged in civil engineering, and in 1890 was in the 
employ of the Spokane Falls and Northern Railway 
Company, being located at Spokane Falls, Washing- 
ton. In 1892 he went as a missionary to Hainan, 
China, having previously supplied for a time the Cen- 
tenary Presbyterian Church in Spokane. In the De- 
cennial Report of his class, issued in 1905, he was re- 
ported as travelling in the West engaged in missionary 
work, and as having been located the previous year in 
New York. On January 10, 1910, he became pastor 
of Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in Oakland, Cal- 
ifornia. This position he held for two years and then 
resigned to sail again, January 10, 1912, for the island 
of Hainan, China, as a missionary. 

He was married June 2, 1897, to Miss Janny Mont- 
gomery. They have one daughter, Edith Louise 
Street. 

Mr. Street published in 1905 a tract entitled "In- 
tercessory Foreign Missionaries." 



CLASS OF 1888 
Herbert Marsena Allen, born at Harpoot, Tur- 
key, March 8, 1865, was the son of Orson Pardy Allen 
and Caroline Redington (Wheeler) Allen, and grand- 

[ 599 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

son of Marsena Allen and Hannah Gates (Percival) 
Allen, and of Joel Wheeler and Sybil (Crosby) 
Wheeler. He came of a missionary family. His par- 
ents went to Turkey in 1855, and, having spent a short 
time at Smyrna and about a year at Trebizond, settled 
in 1857 in Harpoot, where they remained until their 
return to this country in 1896. The mother of Mr. 
Allen was sister of Dr. Crosby H. Wheeler, who was 
the builder and first president of Euphrates College, 
and who began work at Harpoot at the same time with 
Mr. Allen. The family traces its descent in one line 
from Edward Allen, who was a soldier in Cromwell's 
Army and migrated from Scotland to this country, 
settling in Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1636. The Per- 
cival ancestors came from England, settling first in 
Barnstable, and then in Lee, Massachusetts, and sub- 
sequently in Smyrna, New York. Among the ances- 
tors, Apollos Allen and John Percival were soldiers in 
the Revolutionary War. There thus coursed in the 
veins of Mr. Allen the blood of soldiers and mission- 
aries. He was happy in the environment of his youth. 
He was born in a missionary home and on missionary 
ground. Pie had the guidance of parents who were 
gifted with the finest qualities of character. The 
marked characteristics of the father, whose labors of 
more than two score years in Turkey were eminently 
successful, were calmness, deliberativeness, sweetness of 
disposition, good judgment. Of the mother, who died 
in Auburndale in 1898, it was said: "Mrs. Allen's life 
in the mission field was marked by intense earnestness, 
activity, and zeal, always sustained by a firm faith that 
all efforts were ultimately to be crowned with success." 
Mr. Allen fitted for college at the Newton High 
School, and entered college in 1884. His consistent 
Christian life, his earnestness and seriousness as a stu- 
dent, and his gentle manners soon won for him the 

[600] 



Biographical Sketches 

respect and affection of students and teachers. One 
of his preferences was for the study of languages. He 
took a high rank in Latin and Greek, retaining through 
life his love for the Greek language and Greek his- 
tory. And so, when in subsequent years he was making 
missionary tours through the East, he never failed to 
describe with vivid interest the historic significance of 
the places through which he passed. It was perhaps in 
English that his greatest excellence appeared. His 
travels in other countries gave him an unusually wide 
range of subjects on which to write. In his Senior year 
he was one of the editors of the Williams Literary 
Monthly, for which he wrote much, both prose and po- 
etry. He conducted the " Sanctum" of the Monthly, 
and was thus enabled to discuss with freedom current 
college events. In one of these articles he rebuked with 
manly independence what he considered an act of dis- 
courtesy of some of his fellow students shown to a pro- 
fessor in his class-room. When, in Senior year, he 
received the first Griffin prize for excellence in English 
Literature, it was an endorsement of a judgment al- 
ready expressed by his classmates. 

He was a member of the Delta Upsilon Fraternity ; 
of the Philologian Society; and the Young Men's 
Christian Association. On Class Day he was the Poet. 

That Mr. Allen was most loyal to his Alma Mater 
and loved his classmates with a strong affection, is 
shown in the annual letters written to the class secre- 
tary and published in the Class Reports. 

On graduation from the college in 1888, he went 
at once to visit his home in Turkey. In 1889 he ac- 
companied Rev. James L. Barton, then a missionary 
at Harpoot, on a journey to Kurdistan. In 1890 he 
returned to this country and entered Bangor Theologi- 
cal Seminary, from which he was graduated in 1893. 
He was ordained at Bangor, June 8, of the same year, 

[601] 



Williams College and Missions 

and on July 15, he and his wife sailed from New York 
for the Eastern Turkey Mission at Van, at which place 
he arrived in November. Acquainted as he was from 
boyhood with the Armenian language and familiar 
with the customs and needs of the people, he entered 
at once on his missionary work and at once met with 
success both as a teacher and preacher. In a letter 
written in 1895 he speaks of the crowded Sunday serv- 
ices and of his preaching to about 500 people, while the 
Boys' High School, of which he was principal, had over 
130 pupils. Mr. Allen was not only familiar with the 
history of the Armenians and impressed by their proud 
records, but he sympathized deeply with the people in 
their poverty, trials, and aspirations, and was thus en- 
abled to secure to a remarkable degree their confidence 
and friendship. This was the basis of his great influ- 
ence and usefulness, whether as teacher, preacher, or 
touring evangelist. 

During the terrible massacres of 1896, Mr. and 
Mrs. Allen fled, for a time, to Urumia, Persia. After 
the massacres he was sent by a relief committee to Per- 
sia to purchase oxen for the surviving peasants. By 
the gift of oxen and seed the poor people were able to 
cultivate their fields and save themselves from starva- 
tion. Worn out by this labor, Mr. Allen and fam- 
ily returned to America in 1898. Taking his release 
from the Board, he was engaged for a while in Cuban 
relief work, and then, under the auspices of the Mas- 
sachusetts Home Missionary Society, he had charge, for 
a few years, of the religious work among the Armenians 
who were settled in that State, being at one time Secre- 
tary of an Armenian National Council. In connec- 
tion with this work, he established and published with 
much success an Armenian newspaper, called the 
Gochnag, at first published in Boston and later removed 
to New York with an enlarged field. 

[602] 



Biographical Sketches 

In a letter addressed to his classmates, he gives the 
following prospectus of this paper: "We aim," says he, 
"to provide a clean and wholesome current litera- 
ture with plenty of news to educate the people up to 
Western standards of thought and life and as chance 
offers to counteract some of the evil tendencies grow- 
ing among the Americans." 

On August 8, 1903, Mr. and Mrs. Allen, being re- 
appointed missionaries, sailed from New York to join 
the Western Turkey mission and arrived at Bardezag 
on the 2d of September. Here, in the absence of Dr. 
Robert Chambers, the principal, Mr. Allen for two 
years had charge of the Boys' High School, which then 
numbered 185 pupils. Subsequently he entered upon 
the editorship of the missionary newspaper, the Aved- 
aper, which was published weekly in Constantinople, 
in Armenian, Turkish, and Greek, and which went to 
all parts of the Empire. In one of his letters he gives 
an account of a tour of two months undertaken in the 
interest of his paper and of the Student Christian Fed- 
eration, in which tour he travelled 6000 miles and ad- 
dressed 200 students. At one time he represented not 
only the Christian Federation of the World, but also 
the United Christian Endeavor Societies. One of his 
last services to the people of Turkey was the establish- 
ment of a weekly newspaper, the Orient, of which he 
became editor. The paper was published at Constanti- 
nople, and was designed to carry to readers all through 
Turkey and the United States the educational, 
religious, and missionary news of the capital and 
provinces. In a letter to the class secretary, writ- 
ten in May, 1909, a few months after the celebra- 
tion of the twentieth anniversary of his class, he 
described the stirring events of the preceding nine 
months in Turkey, out of which events had come 
forth a new regime, with a removal of the cen- 

[603 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

sorship of the press and the toleration of freedom of 
speech. 

Mr. Allen died of pneumonia in Constantinople, 
January 25, 1911, aged 46 years. He was thus taken 
away in the very prime of his physical and mental 
powers, and when his influence, already great, was still 
increasing. In each of three lines of work in which he 
engaged as missionary — teaching, preaching, editing, 
— he was eminent, while, incidentally, he performed an 
important service in making more harmonious the re- 
lations between the Gregorian and Protestant Churches 
in Turkey. 

Rev. Dr. Joseph K. Greene, of Constantinople, 
wrote of him: "The American Board has had no mis- 
sionary with a more thorough acquaintance with Ar- 
menian history or with a deeper love for the people; 
and he that loved much was also much beloved. Dur- 
ing his few years in Constantinople Mr. Allen secured 
high esteem by reason of his pure and modest life, his 
talents and attainments. As a preacher he was a 
favorite, both in Armenian circles and in the colleges; 
in newspaper publications and in preaching he had high 
ideals, which he labored hard to realize. His untimely 
death in the vigor of manhood was a great shock, and 
his loss will be widely and deeply lamented. 'God 
buries the workers, but in his own all-wise and inscru- 
table way he saves the work.' " 

Mr. Allen was married in Bangor, Maine, June 
10, 1893, to Miss Ellen Hopes Ladd, daughter of Ed- 
ward H. and Julia (Marvin) Ladd, granddaugh- 
ter of Theophilus B. Marvin and Julia (Coggeshall) 
Marvin, and of William Gardner and Margaret ( Gush- 
ing) Ladd, and a descendant from Joseph Ladd, who 
came from London to Portsmouth, Bhode Island, on 
the Hercules in 1633. An uncle of Mrs. Allen, 
William T. B. Marvin, was graduated from Williams 

[ 604 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

in 1854, and her grandfather Marvin received from 
Williams the honorary degree of Master of Arts in 
1859. 

Mr. Allen is survived by the widow and six children : 
— Edith Rogers; H. Marsena Allen, Jr.; Doro- 
thy Martindale; Gladys Marvin; Winifred Ladd; 
Gwendolyn. 

In addition to the numerous articles prepared by 
Mr. Allen for the paper he edited, his publications con- 
sisted largely of numerous articles prepared by him for 
various papers and magazines. 

Frederick Joseph Perkins, son of Joseph Leigh 
and Flora (Perry) Perkins, was born in Royalston, 
Massachusetts, February 2, 1865. On his father's 
side he was grandson of Rev. Ebenezer and Amelia 
(Parish) Perkins, and on the mother's side, the grand- 
son of Benjamin and Hannah (Dean) Perry. The 
family is of English descent, and through the grand- 
mother, Amelia Parish Perkins, Mr. Perkins was de- 
scended from Miles Standish. His father was a dealer 
in real estate. 

The son fitted for college in the High School at 
Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and entered Williams from 
that place as a Freshman in 1884. He took a good 
rank as a scholar, but owing to a trouble with his eyes 
he left college near the end of his Sophomore year. In 
college he was a member of the Philotechnian Society 
and of the Young Men's Christian Association. He 
went into business, at first in Fitchburg, and then in 
Worcester, Massachusetts. Having recovered from 
the trouble with his eyes, in 1888 he entered Hartford 
Theological Seminary, where he was graduated with 
some of his former Williams classmates in 1891. 

As his mother had always been much interested in 
foreign missions, and as a sister was then laboring in a 

[605] 



Williams College and Missions 

foreign field, Mr. Perkins naturally decided to devote 
himself to that work. He was greatly attracted to 
Brazil, and receiving an appointment from the Pres- 
byterian Board of Foreign Missions, he went to Brazil 
in July, 1891. He spent the first year in the interior 
learning the language. It was his desire to settle in 
some town of the interior and devote himself to evan- 
gelistic work. He was,, however, needed at that time 
in educational work in San Paulo., where the Presby- 
terians had a college and a lar^e day and boarding 
school. Mr. Perkins took the place of one of the fac- 
ulty, who was temporarily absent by reason of illness. 
On the return of the regular teacher, it was found that 
Mr. Perkins had contracted tuberculosis. He was ac- 
cordingly ordered by the physicians to return to the 
United States. He returned to this country in Jan- 
uary, 1893, and though he was hopeful of recovery and 
up to the very last was planning to return to Brazil, 
he died September 23 of the same year. 

Mr. Perkins was married in Hartford, Connecticut, 
on January 25, 1893, to Gertrude, daughter of Dr. 
Melancthon and Jane (Adams) Storrs, granddaughter 
of William and Elizabeth (Woodward) Storrs, and of 
Rev. Charles S. and Jane (Parker) Adams, and a de- 
scendant of Samuel Storrs, who came from England 
to Barnstable, Massachusetts, in 1663. Mrs. Perkins 
now resides in Brooklyn, Xew York. A daughter, 
Winifred Storrs Perkins, is preparing for college at 
Rosemary Hill in Greenwich, Connecticut. 

John Solomon Porter, son of Theodore Brown 
and Sarah Ann (Chapman) Porter, grandson of David 
and Jerusha (Simmer) Porter, and of Martin and Cla- 
rissa (Daniels) Chapman, was born in Gilead, Con- 
necticut, March 1, 1862. The family is descended from 
John and Rose Porter, who emigrated from England 

[ 606] 



Biographical Sketches 

and settled in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1639. Theo- 
dore Brown Porter was a farmer, and had as a marked 
characteristic a great fondness for books and reading. 

The son, John Solomon Porter, pursued his prepar- 
atory studies in the Hartford High School, and entered 
college in 1883. Owing to ill health, he left college for 
a time and entered the succeeding class. In col- 
lege he was a member of the Philotechnian Society, in 
which he was for a time one of the critics, and also one 
of the treasurers. He was also a member of the Mills 
Young Men's Christian Association; of the Classical 
Society; and of the Reading-Room Association, in 
which last he held for some time the office of secretary 
and treasurer. He was an assiduous and successful stu- 
dent, graduating with a Commencement appointment. 
He was one of the speakers at Commencement, the sub- 
ject of his address being "Private Letters." His career 
as a student was marked by extreme conscientiousness 
in all his relations and by earnest devotion to duty. His 
influence was invariably on the side of good order and 
upright conduct. He belonged to that noble band of 
students, unhappily not so much in evidence now as for- 
merly, who are not ashamed to help themselves through 
college by the performance of manual labor. 

After graduation from college he entered Hartford 
Theological Seminary, where he was graduated in 1891. 
Receiving an appointment from the American Board, 
he sailed from Boston, October 24 of the same year to 
reinforce the mission in Austria, arriving at Prague, 
Xovember 17. Although the field to which Mr. Porter 
was assigned was one where there were many and pecul- 
iar obstacles, yet it was a field where missionaries of the 
American Board had labored for twenty years, and 
where the mission had been marked by steady progress. 
The peculiar importance of the mission was shown not 
only by its supplying native laborers as preachers and 

[607] 



Williams College and Missions 

evangelists for its own immediate work, but by the gen- 
erous contributions which it made in aid of Bohemian 
work in the United States. When Mr. Porter entered 
upon his labors, the mission had become a power in Bo- 
hemia, and was widening in its influence, and many who 
had formerly opposed it had come to recognize its value 
to the social and moral life of the people. Mr. Porter's 
first letter to the Missionary Herald reflects the favor- 
able conditions in which he entered upon his work. After 
speaking of his great joy at meeting his former pastor, 
Mr. Clark, whom he had not seen for nineteen years, 
and with whom he was to be associated in the work of the 
mission, he wrote as follows of a communion service 
held soon after his arrival: "The hall was packed to its 
utmost and the air was stifling before the service began. 
The hall is far too small for the growing work in this 
beautiful suburb. We must move soon, and this house 
can be sold at quite an advance over the purchasing 
price when the Betanie Society took legal possession. 
Mr. Clark preached a sermon that was listened to with 
deep interest. Then four were received to membership, 
among them two young lawyers, w T hose coming means 
for them a sort of losing caste and for us the reception 
of the first fully educated men. We have those who 
since they came in have been trained and educated, but 
here are two young men ready to lead meetings and de- 
sirous of books that will give them a deeper knowledge 
of God's Word and more power in witnessing for him. 
I am anticipating finding in them pleasant companions, 
and such are by no means easy to find here." 

Under date of February 12, 1903, after twelve years 
of service, Mr. Porter speaks of the growth of the mis- 
sion in many lines, calling especial attention to the fact 
that larger halls were needed for the accommodation of 
the people who wished to attend evangelical services, 
and then continues as follows : "One of our young men, 

[608 ] 



Biographical Sketches 

unmarried, has with great self-denial rented a tenement 
in Nusle, a suburb of Weinberge, and we are conduct- 
ing two services weekly under his roof. Would that we 
had more who could and would imitate his example! 
Our new house in Smichor is approaching completion. 
The larger hall is needed. Zizkor, another suburb of 
Prague, has now a larger hall. Since November 1 the 
members there have formed themselves into a separate 
church organization, the growing congregations, under 
the lead of Mr. Urbanek, calling for the same. In 
Kladno, a city of miners, twenty miles from Prague, 
we are looking for a larger hall. We shall soon form 
a Y. M. C. A. there. In Nachod, in Eastern Bohemia, 
we shall move to larger quarters just as soon as we can 
find something suitable. The hall is crowded to suffo- 
cation. In Budweis, in South Bohemia, we have since 
August last a larger hall. In Pisek, also in South Bo- 
hemia, we have enlarged our borders. In Pilsen, in 
Western Bohemia, we have purchased a house with a 
large dance hall in the rear, admirably suited for our 
work. This we shall dedicate at our annual church con- 
ference, May 20-22. We hope that soon that church 
will be self-supporting. In Prossnitz, in Moravia, we 
have a larger hall also." 

These extracts from Mr. Porter's letters give a good 
idea not only of the growth of his work in Bohemia, but 
of the variety and extent of his labors. The work in 
Moravia, to which reference was made above, was subse- 
quently greatly extended. 

Mr. Porter has visited the United States three times 
during his period of service in Austria: in 1893, 1897, 
and 1910. The last visit was prolonged on account of 
the effort made by him to raise $35,000 for the churches 
that had been established in his field. 

On October 3, 1893, Mr. Porter was married at 
Manchester, Connecticut, to Miss Lizzie Colver, daugh- 

[609] 



Williams College and Missions 

ter of Nathan F. and Ellen E. Colver, granddaughter 
of Nathan and Lucretia Colver, and of Austin and 
Meriva Root. 

There have been born to them a son and a daughter : 
Livingstone Porter, a student, preparing for college; 
and Margaret Porter. 



CLASS OF 1889 

Boon Boon-Itt was born in Bang Pa, near Bang- 
kok, Siam, February 15, 1865, but was of Chinese de- 
scent. His father, Chin Boon Sooie, was of Chinese 
extraction; and his mother, Maa Tuan, boasted that 
there was no Siamese blood in her veins, her ancestors 
being all either Chinese or Cambodians. Her father, 
Qua-Kieng, was a full-blooded Chinese, and was the 
first native member of the first Presbyterian church or- 
ganized in Siam, having been baptized in 1844 by the 
Rev. Mr. Johnson of the American Board Mission. 
When this Board in 1849 withdrew from Siam, he 
transferred his membership to the Presbyterian Church 
in Bangkok. He was a man of more than ordinary at- 
tainments, and on that account was employed by the 
mission as an assistant until the time of his death in 
1859. 

Qua-Kieng's wife was not a Christian, but after his 
death two sons and a daughter, the mother of Boon-Itt, 
united with the church at Bangkok. 

Maa Tuan was a woman of unusual gifts. As she 
was the first of Siamese women to accept Christianity 
she was the first to work for the education of the women 
of Siam. She had been educated in the Presbyterian 
mission school in Bangkok, and after graduation be- 
came matron of the school. In 1880 she taught in the 
palace and had the queen for one of her pupils. For 
many years she taught with great efficiency in the mis- 

[610] 






Biographical Sketches 

sion schools and was ever a faithful witness for Christ. 
Through her influence nearly all her near relatives be- 
came Christians. As there was no church at Bang Pa, 
she removed to Sumray, a suburb of Bangkok, where 
she could have the sympathy of fellow Christians and 
obtain religious instruction for her three children. 
Boon-Itt with his younger brother was placed in the 
Christian boarding-school at Sumray, where he soon 
became a great favorite, standing well in his classes and 
being a leader in sports of all kinds. 

In 1876, when Boon-Itt was eleven, an important 
change came into his life. At that time Dr. and Mrs. 
Samuel R. House, after thirty years of service in Siam, 
returning to their native land, took with them from 
Siam two boys to be educated in America. One of these 
boys was Nai Kawn and the other Boon-Itt. The home 
to which they came was in Waterford, New York, 
where Boon-Itt became an attendant and subsequently 
a member of Dr. Arthur T. Pierson's church. He soon 
won the affectionate interest of the people, and when 
he was ready to labor among his own people, he was 
adopted as their missionary by the Presbyterian Church 
of Waterford. 

In 1881 when the boys were sixteen, Dr. House sent 
them to Williston Seminary to be prepared for college. 
Here Boon-Itt manifested qualities that made him pop- 
ular with teacher and students. His eagerness for 
knowledge made him a favorite pupil in the class room, 
while in the gymnasium and on the athletic field he won 
equal distinction. Says one who knew him: "His swim- 
ming feats and records were never equalled. In the 
class room his work was always well done. In the lit- 
erary society he was one of the merriest and most faith- 
ful. Everywhere his good humor and hearty laugh 
were contagious, and his unselfishness was a by-word." 
At Williams College, to which, it is said, he had been 

[611] 



Williams College and Missions 

drawn on account of its superior moral tone, and Mark 
Hopkins, the reputation he had gained at Easthamp- 
ton was continued. He was a conscientious and suc- 
cessful student and beloved by all who knew him. In 
college he took a prominent place in a class that had an 
unusual number of men of marked ability. Among his 
classmates were Howard Kennedy, James Richard Mc- 
Donald, Frank Jewett Mather, Charles Thaddeus 
Terry, and William Robert Williams. He was a mem- 
ber of the Philologian Society and was one of the more 
active members of the Lyceum of Natural History, in 
which he was curator for one year. While biology and 
moral philosophy were his favorite studies, he was suc- 
cessful in all departments. He received one of the 
Benedict prizes and an honorable mention in Natural 
History. He also had an appointment and was one of 
the speakers at Commencement, the subject of his ad- 
dress being "An Indian Torch." 

Although as a professing Christian he had been 
regular in his attendance upon church, and a faithful 
student of the Bible, it was not till his college years that 
he met with that awakening and change which led to a 
full surrender to God and the resolution to study for 
the ministry and return as a missionary to his native 
land. Meanwhile he became active in the various forms 
of the Christian Association work and exerted a strong 
influence in the Christian life of the college. Socially, 
he was ever the Christian gentleman, modest, courteous, 
the soul of honor, superior to all meanness, loyal in his 
friendships. A classmate who was most intimate with 
him has written of him: "I remember with what 
spirit he entered into the fun and the contests of the 
campus — lithe, active, quick, strong, but never rough 
nor rude ; with what enthusiasm and nicety he dissected 
and studied and accurately draughted the subjects be- 
fore him on our table in the biological laboratory, and 

[612] 



Biographical Sketches 

with what interest he reported to the meetings of the 
L. i\ T . H.; with what cordial hospitality he opened his 
rooms to all who would come and made each welcome at 
any hour, day or night, — for years I carried a key to 
his rooms, — and what a true and loyal friend he was; 
with what earnestness, simplicity, and absolute sincer- 
ity he lived out his religious faith and how actively he 
worked in Sunday-schools and prayer meetings, in Pro- 
fessor Drummond's deputation work, and in the Y. M. 
C. A., and always quietly, modestly, and unaffectedly." 

Before entering the theological seminary, he spent 
a summer vacation at Northfield, Massachusetts, to 
learn from Mr. Moody the art of Bible study and his 
method of winning men to Christ. In the fall of 1889 
he entered Auburn Theological Seminary, where he was 
graduated in 1902, and where he remained an additional 
year for post-graduate work. During these seminary 
years he spent one vacation preaching in Michigan, and 
one at Bergen, New York. He had become thoroughly 
imbued with the American spirit, and while a member 
of the seminary he acquired American citizenship. 

He was ordained by the Presbytery at Rochester, 
Xew York, May 11, 1892, and when he was appointed 
to missionary service by the Board of Foreign Missions, 
the Young People's Societies of the Presbytery as- 
sumed his support. 

America had been his home for seventeen years, and 
when in 1893 he returned to Siam to take up his life 
work, it was not without much sacrifice, though with the 
highest joy in the thought of working for the young 
men of Siam. 

His first effort was to perfect himself in the use of 
the language, which he had not used since he was eleven 
years of age. But language study was easy for him; 
he had a thorough knowledge of English, and could 
read at sight Greek and Hebrew. It was the ambition 

[613] 



Williams College and Missions 

of his mother that he should become a Siamese scholar, 
and the missionaries had the hope that he would become 
qualified to revise the translation of the Bible. During 
the months of preparation and while living at Sumray, 
he aided the mission work in various ways ; he did liter- 
ary work for the mission press, made evangelistic tours 
to the peninsula by boat and overland, making good use 
of the stereopticon to attract the villagers to the story 
of Christ. In one of his letters to friends in America 
he wrote: "It is a great joy to tell the story of Jesus to 
the multitudes who have never heard it before." 

On September 23, 1897, he married his cousin, Maa 
Kim Hock, who had recently graduated from the Har- 
riet House School. She proved herself a true helpmeet 
to her husband, fully sympathizing with him in his life 
work and aiding him in his efforts to elevate their peo- 
ple. When soon after his engagement he received from 
a commercial house a renewed offer of a large salary in 
gold if he would enter their service, she, when consulted, 
said: "I think we would be far happier doing the Lord's 
work on a little money than to leave it for this large 
sum." 

Soon after their marriage, Boon-Itt and his wife left 
Sumray and went with Dr. and Mrs. Toy to open a new 
station at Pitsanuloke, a month's journey up the Me- 
nam River from Bangkok. Here his special work 
was to establish and develop a boys' boarding-school. 
Through the efforts of Boon-Itt the school was estab- 
lished without a dollar of foreign money. The land was 
given by the Siamese chief commissioner, and the over 
four thousand ticals required for the teak building were 
raised in Pitsanuloke. The standard of scholarship in 
the school was high. "In the competitive government 
examinations the boys of this school gained the highest 
percentages, over the boys of the government public 
school and the Royal Survey School." 

[6U] 



Biographical Sketches 

Boon-Itt had a strong personal interest in the boys, 
becoming their companion and guide, tramping with 
them on Saturdays into the jungle there to study na- 
ture. His influence over them, as was to be expected, 
was unbounded and he won from them their deep and 
abiding affection. 

But a larger field was awaiting him. Thousands of 
bright young men were flocking to Bangkok, and the 
well-to-do classes were becoming interested in foreign 
ideas, and there were no adequate church privileges to 
meet the wants of such a population. When, in 1902, 
Rev. Dr. Arthur J. Brown, Secretary of the Presby- 
terian Board of Foreign Missions, visited Siam on a 
tour of inspection, he found the imperative need of a 
new church in Bangkok. "In the main part of the 
city," he wrote, "are scores of young men and women 
who were educated at our boarding-schools. Many of 
them are Christians. Properly led, they might be a 
power for Christ. For this great work a man and a 
church are needed at once; no other need in Siam is 
more urgent. The man should be able to speak the high 
Siamese like a native. He should be conversant with 
the intricacies of Siamese customs and etiquette, and so 
understand the native mind that he can enter into sym- 
pathy with it and be able to mold it for God. There is 
one man in Siam who meets all these conditions. That 
man is Rev. Boon Boon-Itt, already a member of the 
mission, and one of the most remarkable men I have 
met in Asia. At the head of his 'clan,' whose family 
home is in Bangkok, he is widely and favorably known 
in the capital. Young men like him and resort to him 
for advice whenever he visits the city." 

In accordance with this recommendation Boon-Itt 
was transferred to Bangkok and had one short year of 
most important and successful work. 

Funds for the new church were forthcoming. Phra 

[615] 



Williams College and Missions 

Montri, a Siamese nobleman, who had been educated at 
Columbia College, and had lost his only son, offered 
to furnish all the money needed, above what the Siamese 
Christians could give, for building a church in Bangkok, 
in the hope that many young men might be reached. It 
was Phra Montri's wish that Boon-Itt should take 
charge of this enterprise, which he did. Near the site 
of the new church, buildings for the Christian Boys' 
High School began to be erected. Cottage prayer meet- 
ings were started; Christian worship was established in 
many homes, and a Christian community began to grow 
up in the neighborhood. 

Boon-Itt was anxious to do something for the young 
men during the week days as well as on Sunday, and 
had in mind an institution something like a Young 
Men's Christian Association, with a building contain- 
ing library, reading-rooms, and gymnasium. Through 
the efforts of two of his student friends, two Presby- 
terian churches of America agreed to contribute $500 
a year to carry on this work. 

But just as his plans were about to meet with ful- 
filment, and his influence was widening, and when he 
"was standing on the threshold of a career which would 
apparently make him one of the most influential Chris- 
tian leaders in Asia," he was suddenly seized with the 
cholera, and after a sickness of ten days died May 8, 
1903. He left a widow and three children. 

The death of Boon-Itt called forth expressions of 
the deepest sorrow from his fellow missionaries, from 
the Siamese, to whom his death seemed an irreparable 
loss, and from student mates and other friends in Amer- 
ica. Quickly there came from various quarters the ex- 
pression of a desire to erect some memorial which should 
perpetuate his influence. Committees appointed in 
Siam and America soon secured the necessary funds, 
and a "Boon-Itt Memorial" has been erected in Bang- 

[616 1 



Biographical Sketches 

kok. It is a beautiful structure, carrying out Boon-Itt's 
own plan of a building, something like the Y. M. C. A. 
buildings in America, where there are a library, read- 
ing-room, chapel, etc., to aid in Christian work among 
young people. Contributions for the memorial were 
received from friends in America and from all classes in 
Siam, including members of the royal family. Prince 
Damrong, Minister of the Interior, said when asked to 
contribute: "I am glad to help in a memorial to that 
splendid man. Boon-Itt was a true Christian. You 
may not know that I offered him a position which would 
have led to high titles of nobility from the King of 
Siam, to the governorship of a large province, and to 
a large increase in his income. Yet he declined these 
high honors and financial benefits that he might con- 
tinue in the service of Jesus Christ." 

He died before he had reached two score years, yet 
the memory of the years he passed in this country is 
treasured by many as a precious inheritance, while his 
ten years of missionary service made him the acknowl- 
edged leader of the Christian Church in Siam. 

A memorial pamphlet of Boon-Itt was published 
soon after his death by the Presbyterian Board of For- 
eign Missions. A good picture of him and an illustra- 
tion of the Memorial Building are contained in the May 
number of the Missionary Review of the World for 
1912, and are also reproduced in this volume. 

Judge Kennedy, the writer of the following letter, 
was, as will be seen, not only a classmate but a most 
intimate friend of Boon-Itt. 

Lincoln, Nebraska, August 10, 1914. 
My dear Professor Hewitt: 

My acquaintance with Boon-Itt began a few days 
before the opening of the fall term at Williams in 1885, 
and we soon became close friends and continued such as 

[617] 



Williams College and Missions 

long as he lived. I count it a privilege to contribute to 
your biography of him a brief characterization of the 
Boon-Itt whom I knew. 

As I think back over the years that are gone, I am 
impressed especially by two things — the symmetry of 
his character and his extraordinary unselfishness. 

His body was small-framed but muscular, well-knit, 
lithe, active, quick of movement, with great power of 
endurance. He engaged freely in the wholesome sports 
of the campus and loved the out-of-door life of field and 
wood and stream. 

His mind was alert, keen, analytical and busied it- 
self with the great problems of human existence. He 
himself wrote me, "I am of the opinion that Eastern 
minds have a way of getting at things which is some- 
what different from the Western." The combination of 
his Oriental mind and his Western education and train- 
ing resulted in a breadth of view and a catholicity of 
understanding most unusual. He loved the beautiful 
in nature and art, and appreciated the best in literature 
and music. He had an unfailing sense of humor and 
was a most charming companion. He was modest, gen- 
tle, refined, courteous, generous, hospitable, and pos- 
sessed to the highest degree the gift of friendship. 

He was deeply religious but was entirely free from 
the narrowness and prejudice which characterize many 
religious people. He was never flippant concerning 
serious subjects, nor was there anything of cant or pre- 
tense about him. His faith and devotion were real and 
deep-seated, not formal nor merely habitual. He was 
broad-minded and clear-visioned and saw things in their 
true relations and right proportions. There was noth- 
ing of the "goody-good" in him. 

It is sometimes charged that Orientals are lazy and 
deceitful. Boon-Itt was neither. He entered into life 
fully and busied himself with everything that was good. 

[618] 



Biographical Sketches 

He was the soul of honor and truth. When he was in 
college he was most active in the service of outlying 
Sabbath-schools and prayer meetings, walking miles in 
all sorts of weather not only to teach and to pray but to 
visit the sick and minister to the dying. When in Au- 
burn Seminary, he taught physics to a Chatauqua cir- 
cle; at Bad Axe, Michigan, while ministering to two 
congregations, he found time to renew the study of 
geology and to prepare a boy for his entrance examina- 
tions at college; and in the heart of Siam, with all his 
other work, he took up the study of Sanskrit and gath- 
ered together the folk-lore of his people. 

He had something of a struggle to determine 
whether his mission should be to preach or to heal. He 
was very strongly drawn to the practice of medicine but 
finally concluded that the ministry of the Word was the 
greatest need of his people and gave himself to it with- 
out reservation. 

When he had completed his theological course and 
presented himself to the Presbyterian Board of Foreign 
Missions to be commissioned as a missionary, his un- 
selfish devotion to the cause was subjected to a very 
bitter test. The Board decided to send him out as an 
"honorary" member of the Mission, that is, he was to be 
present at all meetings but was to have no vote, and 
his salary was to be determined by the Mission and 
not fixed by the Board. 

This action by the Board has always seemed to me 
most narrow, most unwise and essentially unchristian, 
but Boon-Itt's heart was in the work and, however much 
he was hurt and humiliated, he accepted the ungenerous 
conditions. In a letter to me, written in March, 1893, 
referring to this action, he writes: "I am willing to try 
and work, but I am not, of course, satisfied. The only 
basis of work, with as little friction as may be, is worth, 
be the person black, white, red, or yellow. The constant 

[619] 



Williams College and Missions 

allusions to the jealousies of the native Christians, also 
the untrustworthiness of converts, are far from pleasant 
to hear. It certainly pays a doubtful tribute to Chris- 
tianity as well as viewing the question from only one 
side." 

When he reached Siam, the Mission fixed his salary 
at but little more than one-half that received by the 
others under like conditions, and allowances for rent, 
etc., were similarly disproportionate. 

This inequality he felt not so much for himself as for 
his people. He saw that such discrimination, based on 
racial difference, greatly impeded the progress of the 
gospel. "Both sides" [natives and missionaries], he 
wrote, "agree and feel that Christianity is an exotic. It 
is true the cosmopolitan nature of our religion is not yet 
recognized by my own people. They say it is the reli- 
gion of the foreigners. Christianity in order to be in- 
digenous must take root and grow in the family." He 
saw that to make Siam Christian must be, ultimately, 
the work of a Siamese Christian Church, self-support- 
ing and self-directed, responsible to God and not to a 
foreign mission, and to this end he worked. 

This race prejudice was slow to be overcome. He 
had the disheartening experience of a lack of apprecia- 
tion and understanding on the part of his fellow work- 
ers, for several years. In February, 1898, he wrote me 
from Pitsanuloke: "This year I did not attend the Mis- 
sion meeting and Dr. Toy, who attended it, told me 
some pretty mean things that were said of me by some 
of my fellow-laborers. It came at a time when I was 
weary and half -sick with building this house, in which 
we have now been living for eight days. It was not 
built with Mission money. I was and am trying to do 
my best for the good of my people, and to be criticized 
year in and year out and suspected by some who ought 
to give me hearty support, made me feel terribly dis- 

[620] 



Biographical Sketches 

couraged. For the first time since my return my hopes 
sank and I felt like giving up. I told no one, not even 
my wife." At this very time there came offers of ease 
and station and large salary, but with that constancy 
and unselfishness which characterized his whole life 
he and his devoted wife clung to their work and went on. 

He must have been a great teacher. He wrote, in 
1897, concerning a bamboo schoolhouse he was building 
in Pitsanuloke, and adds: "As I have men who study 
Christianity I have to spend a good deal of time for- 
mulating what are the fundamental doctrines of Chris- 
tianity. We can use phrases in the States and be 
understood. . . . Here it is de novo. ... I use no 
text-book. I do not know of any. I endeavor to an- 
alyze as honestly as I know how myself and use my 
experience as a guide — not as an infallible guide, but 
only as a working basis." 

And so he thought and taught and wrought with 
self-forgetfulness and patience, with forbearance and 
diligence, through trial and discouragement, to achieve- 
ment and recognition and success — an ideal, Christian 
gentleman and the best I have ever known. 

Faithfully yours, 
Howard Kennedy. 

CLASS OF 1890 
Egbert Smyth Ellis, son of Rev. Thomas Long 
and Mary Angelia (Hayes) Ellis, was born in Kittery, 
Maine, May 3, 1866. He pursued his preparatory stud- 
ies at Phillips Academy, Andover, and entered college 
in 1886. Although he was of a modest and retiring dis- 
position, his influence in college was always of a posi- 
tive nature, and uniformly on the side of the right. A 
nice conscientiousness in the discharge of every duty, 
both in and out of the class room, and great earnestness 
and persistency of purpose, were striking characteristics 

[621] 



Williams College and Missions 

of the student. He was one of those youths upon whom 
the words of the teacher are. not lost. In a class un- 
usually large and having many superior scholars, 
he was an assiduous and successful student, receiving 
an appointment and being one of the speakers at Com- 
mencement, the subject of his address being "A Vision." 
According to his own account it was in his Senior 
year in the academy that he decided to go as a mission- 
ary, being led to this decision by a consideration of the 
mission of Jesus Christ, especially as presented by Jo- 
seph Neesima. He pursued his theological studies at 
Andover, graduating in 1894. During his seminary 
course he supplied, with unusual acceptance, one of the 
churches in Lowell, Massachusetts. He was ordained 
June 11, at the close of the seminary course, and in 
September of the same year sailed for the Eastern Tur- 
key Mission, arriving in Harpoot, where he was sta- 
tioned, November 19, 1894. He promptly and with 
characteristic faith and earnestness, entered upon his 
work, and passed through the terrible experiences of 
the Armenian massacre and the months of trial follow- 
ing. A writer in the Missionary Herald speaks of the 
tender care and aid which he rendered to Dr. Wheeler 
during his great feebleness, stating that after conduct- 
ing Dr. Wheeler and his family as far as Constanti- 
nople on their return to this country, he hastened back 
to his work, in which he engaged with all ardor. In a 
letter addressed to the Secretary of the Board, and 
written but a few months before his death, in giving a 
report of a recent visit to three places, Palu, Peri, Per- 
tek, he writes: "In one of these places are eighty-six 
households — not individuals, but households — of wid- 
ows and orphans with no means of providing bread. 
Five or six wretched orphan boys came begging of us 
in the market place. Women and children were in the 
streets, going from place to place, begging even of the 

[622] 



Biographical Sketches 

Turks, and finding lodging where best they might. 
What a school of degradation and crime !" Before his 
death he had already acquired sufficient command of the 
language to enable him to engage in evangelistic work, 
in which he was especially interested. One of his last 
services in the mission was the distribution to the village 
congregations of some Sunday-school books which had 
been detained at the capital. After personally distrib- 
uting these books in the nearer villages, he decided to go 
on the same errand to villages more remote. It was on 
one of these journeys, after calling at several villages, 
that, on February 17, 1897, he was taken with a violent 
chill. He insisted on riding to Ichme. Although he 
here came under the tender care of Christian brethren, 
and had the attendance of skilful physicians, the attack 
from the first was so severe that no human remedies 
could avail, and he died of congestion of the brain on 
the morning of February 22. The body was taken for 
burial to Harpoot. Among those who called shortly 
after the funeral services to express their sympathy, 
was a Gregorian priest, who, in behalf of the people, 
sent a message of most kindly appreciation to the kin- 
dred of Mr. Ellis. 

The missionary associates of Mr. Ellis gave most 
tender and affectionate testimonials of his character and 
work. Dr. H. N. Barnum wrote: "One of the most 
marked characteristics of Mr. Ellis was his sincerity. 
There was no sham in him. He was as sincere in his 
spiritual life as in everything else. He was a true 
Christian. He was thoroughly unselfish. Perhaps he 
thought too little of self. He was persistent in what- 
ever he undertook. No obstacle would turn him aside 
from anything which he thought to be right." 

He was not married. 



[628] 



Williams College and Missions 

CLASS OF 1902 

Lansing Bartlett Bloom, son of Richard H. and 
Anna Root (Porter) Bloom, and grandson of John 
Clark and Frances (Hyde) Bloom, and of Lansing and 
Elizabeth (Curtis) Porter, was born in Auburn, New 
York, April 12, 1880. Through his father, Mr. Bloom 
traces his lineage back to English, Dutch, and French 
Huguenot ancestry, and through his mother to New 
England Puritans, one of them being Elder William 
Brewster of the Mayflower. The grandfather, Lansing 
Porter, was a Congregational minister. The father, 
who was a wholesale and retail merchant, was an elder 
in the Presbyterian church, and active in local Christian 
Association work. His marked characteristics were 
firmness of principle, sensitiveness and gentleness of 
spirit, and a wonderful bravery of soul combined with 
a high sense of responsibility in his own work as a citi- 
zen, and in various Christian activities. The son made 
a profession of religion at the age of twelve, and since 
the age of fourteen has been a life member of the Young 
Men's Christian Association. 

He fitted for college in the High School at Auburn, 
New York, and entered Williams as a Freshman in 
1898. He had a brother, Richard Porter Bloom, in the 
class of 1901, and another brother, Raymond Curtis 
Bloom, is a member of the class of 1915. In college 
Lansing Bloom ranked well in scholarship, and engaged 
in various student activities. He was awarded a Rice 
Book prize, and was a speaker at the Junior Prelimi- 
nary Oratorical Contest, his subject being "Optimism." 
He was a member of the Philotechnian Society, of 
which he was secretary in Junior year. He was a mem- 
ber of the Mills Young Men's Christian Association, in 
which he was chairman of the missionary committee, 
and a member of the Student Volunteer Band. He was 
vice-president of the Chess Club and a member of the 

[624] 



Biographical Sketches 

Greater New York Club ; of the Chemical Society ; of 
the Glee Club; and of the chapel choir. 

After graduation, he matriculated at Auburn Theo- 
logical Seminary, and after studying there for a few 
weeks he went to New Mexico for the benefit of his 
health, spending some time at the Agricultural College 
at Mesilla Park, where he "secured a most satisfactory 
blend of work and play." During the year 1903-04 he 
labored among the Mormons under the Utah Gospel 
Mission, itinerating about 1000 miles by wagon. He 
then returned to Auburn Seminary to complete the 
course and was graduated in 1907. Having been ap- 
pointed in the spring of that year by the Presbyterian 
Board of Foreign Missions to Mexico, he was assigned 
to the Saltillo Mission, which he, with his wife, reached 
about the 1st of August. While he was learning the 
language he had a beginning in itinerating with his 
older associate and in evangelistic work with the Mexi- 
can pastor in Saltillo; and also had charge of the Eng- 
lish congregation, with work among the foreign colony. 
His foreign mission work, which had lasted about a year 
and a half, was interrupted in August, 1905, by serious 
illness. He was taken for convalescence to Mesilla 
Park, New Mexico, where Mrs. Bloom in the meantime 
taught school. In the spring he was sufficiently recov- 
ered to accept charge of the mission church (American) 
in that place, under the Presbyterian Board of Home 
Missions, and continued in that position until the begin- 
ning of the next year. While there he helped organize 
a Civic League in the valley. On January 1, 1911, he 
began work for the Jemez Pueblo Indians, having 
charge also of a Mexican and American church at Je- 
mez Springs. These Indians, numbering 554, are a sort 
of miniature nation by themselves. They have a lan- 
guage distinct from that of any other pueblo, having 
their own officers, with religion and customs of their 

[ 625 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

own. Their religion is blended with Roman Catholi- 
cism in curious ways ; while their customs and usages are 
hallowed by a long period of time, some of them being 
introduced by the Spaniards more than two centuries 
ago. They are a peace-loving and friendly people, and 
are anxious to receive education. Though a Presby- 
terian mission was started with some aid from the Gov- 
ernment in 1875, no evangelical work had been done 
for some years before the arrival of Mr. Bloom. Jemez 
is so isolated that the priest has had large influence, and 
there is great need of evangelical work there, which has 
to be done, of course, in face of the strong opposition of 
the Franciscan padres. Though Mr. Bloom is now 
within the boundaries of our own country, he finds the 
work he is doing really more "foreign" than was the 
work in Saltillo. In a letter printed in the Decennial 
Record of his class Mr. Bloom says: "It would give an 
idea of this country to say that I did about 2000 miles 
in the saddle last year. I rode up from Mesilla Park; 
it is sixty miles to Santa Fe, forty-seven to Albuquer- 
que, thirteen to Jemez Springs (where I look after a 
small church also), and beyond that ranches scattered 
through the mountains. And beyond them, Navajoes 
and Apaches." 

Along with his evangelistic work, Mr. Bloom is in- 
terested in doing some historical and sociological work. 
At the Commencement in 1912, his Alma Mater con- 
ferred on him the degree of Master of Arts, the subject 
of his thesis being "New Mexico's History from 1821 
to 1846." He proposes to continue still further his in- 
vestigations in this line of research. 

On July 19, 1907, he was married at Santa Fe, New 
Mexico, to Miss Maude McFie, daughter of John R. 
and Mary (Steele) McFie, granddaughter of Robert 
and Elizabeth (McPherson) McFie and of Richard 
and Eliza (Black) Steele. Robert McFie had a family 

[626] 



Biographical Sketches 

of eight children, and was a teacher in a Scotch Cove- 
nanter Colony which came via Edinburgh and Canada 
to Coulterville, Illinois. They were "Old Lights." 
Richard Steele, the maternal grandfather, whose people 
were from the Scotch Lowlands, brought his family 
from Steelville, County Antrim, Ireland. They were 
"New Lights." 

There was born to Mr. and Mrs. Bloom one daugh- 
ter, who died in June, 1911, at the age of six months. 



CLASS OF 1905 

Lindsay Stillwell Backus Hadley was born in 
Seneca Falls, New York, May 9, 1883, being the son 
of Benjamin F. Hadley and Helen Backus, who was 
the daughter of William and Ann Stillwell Backus. 
The son fitted for college at Mynderse Academy in his 
native place, and entered Williams as a Freshman in 
1901. In college he engaged in various student activi- 
ties, being interested in Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation work, and being manager of the class Basketball 
Team for one season. He was a member of the Alpha 
Zeta Alpha Society; of the Classical Society; and of 
the Western New York Club. He was a superior stu- 
dent, taking Benedict and Delano prizes in Greek and 
graduating with a Commencement appointment. After 
graduation he pursued a course of study in Auburn 
Theological Seminary, graduating in 1908. He then 
became for two years pastor of a Presbyterian church 
in Sacketts Harbor, and from 1910 to 1913 he was asso- 
ciate pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Glens 
Falls, New York. 

He was married in New York City January 13, 
1914, to Miss Mary Wheeler Humphrey, daughter of 
George and Caroline (Scranton) Humphrey, and a 
graduate of Wellesley College. On February 21 fol- 

[627] 



Williams College and Missions 

lowing, Mr. and Mrs. Hadley sailed on the Adriatic 
under appointment of the Presbyterian Board of For- 
eign Missions to engage in missionary work in Peking. 



CLASS OF 1908 
Luther Richardson Fowle was born in Talas 
(Cesarea), Turkey, July 30, 1886. He was not only 
born on missionary ground but came of missionary 
stock, his parents being Rev. James Luther and Mrs. 
Carrie Palmer (Farnsworth) Fowle, of Cesarea, and 
his grandparents Rev. Dr. Wilson Amos and Mrs. Car- 
oline Elizabeth (Palmer) Farnsworth, also of Cesarea. 
Dr. Farnsworth, who died June, 1912, at Thetford, 
Vermont, at the age of 90, was for more than half 
a century a missionary of the American Board. He 
was graduated from Middlebury College in 1848, and 
Andover Seminary in 1852, and embarked at Boston 
on December 22, of the same year. After spending 
more than a year at Marsovan, he arrived at Cesarea, 
the scene of his life work, June 16, 1854. It is re- 
corded in his diary that during the period of his mis- 
sionary service he travelled 70,000 miles, 30,000 of 
which were on horseback. He received the honorary 
degree of Doctor of Divinity from Middlebury Col- 
lege in 1877. Rev. James L. Fowle, the father of the 
subject of this sketch, was educated at Amherst Col- 
lege and Andover Theological Seminary, and with his 
wife sailed from New York for Turkey September 12, 
1878. Mr. Fowle, being stationed at Cesarea, in West- 
ern Turkey, became a colleague of Dr. Farnsworth (the 
father of Mrs. Fowle ) , and until recently was in active 
service there. Besides his parents, Mr. Luther R. 
Fowle has a sister, Miss Mary Carolyn Fowle, who is 
engaged in missionary work in Adabazar, Turkey. 
An elder brother, Luther Wilson Fowle, who was grad- 

[628] 



Biographical Sketches 

uated here in 1907, is teaching in China. A younger 
brother, Hubert W. Fowle, who was graduated here 
in 1910, is preparing to be a medical missionary. This 
proclivity to the missionary life may be due in part to 
the nationality of the ancestry, the Fowles coming from 
Scotland at an early period, being among the original 
settlers of Woburn, Massachusetts, in 1642 and later. 

Mr. Fowle fitted for college at the Lawrenceville 
School and at the Newton High School, and entered 
Williams as a Freshman in 1904. For a part of his 
course he had two brothers as college mates, — Theodore 
W. in 1907 and Hubert W. in 1910. He was a prom- 
inent member of the class in various student activities. 
He took an active interest in debating as a member of 
the Philologian Society and on the Sophomore debat- 
ing team. He was a member of the Lawrenceville 
Club, and of the Lyceum of Natural History, of which 
he was one of the presidents, and in Junior year the 
secretary. He always stood well in the work of the 
curriculum; he took the first prize in the Moonlight 
contest of his Junior year, and received an appoint- 
ment at Commencement. His special study was biol- 
ogy. He was a member of the class Cross-country Team 
Freshman year, and class Track Team Freshman and 
Sophomore years. He played on the class Basket-ball 
Team during the last three years of his course, and 
made the 'Varsity team as substitute in Senior year. 
He was also for a time member of the College Choir. 

After graduation he spent a year in Turkey, visit- 
ing his native place and making observations in various 
parts of the Empire. After his return to this country 
he spent a year and a half in Union Theological Semi- 
nary, and on February 14, 1912, he sailed to take up 
the work to which his parents and grandparents de- 
voted their lives, though in Central instead of Western 
Turkey. He was assigned to the station at Aintab, 

[ 629 ] 



Williams College and Missions 

but before going there he was to spend some time in 
the office of the Mission Treasurer at Constantinople, 
that he might become familiar with the work of that 
department, which is closely related to the business ad- 
ministration of the different Turkey missions of the 
Board. 

Mr. Fowle stands at the beginning of a career 
which, it is hoped, may prove a long and useful one. 
He has not only the inspiration which comes from the 
cause to which he has devoted himself, but that which 
comes from an ancestry which has been devoted to the 
same service. 

He was married in Constantinople, by Professor 
Huntington, September 10, 1913, to Miss Helen Cur- 
tis, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank E. Curtis, of 
North Adams, Massachusetts. Mrs. Fowle was grad- 
uated at Wellesley College in 1908. After teach- 
ing for a time in this country, she was sent out to 
Turkey by the Women's Board, and became a teacher 
of English branches and physical culture at the Ana- 
tolia Girls' School at Marsovan. 

Mr. and Mrs. Fowle are now located at Aintab, 
where, besides being treasurer and business manager of 
the mission, he is doing some teaching and giving some 
time to itinerating among the outlying villages. 



[630] 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Genealogy of the family of Lt. Thomas Tracy, of Norwich, Con- 
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American Quarterly Register. Vols. II and XIII. 

Foreign Missions, their Relations and Claims. By Rufus Ander- 
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1869. 

The Hawaiian Islands, their Progress and Condition under Mis- 
sionary Labors. By Rufus Anderson, D.D. Boston: Gould and 
Lincoln. 

History of the Missions of the American Board of Commis- 
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LL.D. Boston: Congregational Publishing Society, 1874. 

History of the Missions of the American Board of Commis- 
sioners for Foreign Missions to the Oriental Churches. By Rufus 
Anderson, D.D., LL.D. Two Volumes. Boston: Congregational 
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Memoir of Rev. Gordon Hall, A.M., one of the First Mission- 
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Flagg, Gould and Newman, 1834. 

The Encyclopaedia of Missions, Descriptive, Historical, Bio- 
graphical, Statistical, etc. Edited by Rev. Edwin Munsell Bliss. 
Two Volumes. Funk and Wagnalls, New York, 1891. 

The Whole World Kin: A Pioneer Experience among Remote 
Tribes, and Other Labors of Nathan Brown. Hubbard Brothers, 
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American Religious Leaders. Mark Hopkins. By Franklin Car- 
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General Catalogue of the Theological Seminary, Andover, 
Massachusetts, 1808-1908. Thomas Todd, Printer, Boston, Mass. 

Princeton Theological Seminary Biographical Catalogue. Com- 
piled by Joseph H. Dulles, Librarian of the Seminary, Trenton, 
N. J. MacCrellish and Quigley, Printers, 1909. 

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Rochester Theological Seminary General Catalogue, 1850 to 
1910. E. R. Andrews Printing Co., Rochester, N. Y., 1910. 

General Catalogue of the Union Theological Seminary in the 
City of New York, 1836-1908. Compiled by Charles Ripley Gil- 
lett, Librarian, 700 Park Avenue, New York, 1908. 

The Goodrich Family in America, etc. Edited by Lafayette 
Wallace Case, M.D. Chicago Fergus Printing Company, 1889. 

The Congregational Year-Book. 

A History of Hampden County, Massachusetts. Editor, Alfred 
Minot Copeland, 1902. 

Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with 
Annals of the College History. Vols. 1-6. By Franklin Bowditch 
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Genealogical and Personal Memoirs, relating to the Families of 
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A History of Williams College. By Rev. Calvin Durfee. Bos- 
ton: A. Williams and Company, 1860. 

Williams Biographical Annals. By Rev. Calvin Durfee, D.D. 
Boston: Lee and Shepard, Publishers. New York: Lee, Shepard 
and Dillingham, 1871. 

The History of the Descendants of Elder John Strong, of North- 
ampton, Massachusetts. By Benjamin W. Dwight, 1871. 

Father Eells, or the Results of Fifty-five Years of Missionary 
Labors in Washington and Oregon. A Biography of Rev. Cushing 
Eells, D.D., by Myron Eells, with an Introduction by Rev. L. H. 
Hallock, D.D. Boston and Chicago: Congregational Sunday-school 
and Publishing Society, 1884. 

A History of American Baptist Missions in Asia, Africa, Europe 
and North America. By William Gamwell, A.M., Professor in 
Brown University. Boston: Kendall and Lincoln, 1849. 

The Genealogy of the Hitchcock Family. Compiled and Pub- 
lished by Mrs. Edward Hitchcock, Sr., of Amherst, Massachusetts, 
1894. 

Charles McEwen Hyde: A Memorial prepared by his son, 
Henry Knight Hyde. Eddy Press, Ware, Massachusetts, 1901. 

Memorials of a Century, Embracing a Record of Individuals 
and Events chiefly in the Early History of Bennington, Vt., and 
Its First Church. By Isaac Jennings, Pastor of the Church. Bos- 
ton: Gould and Lincoln, 1869. 

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Fifty-three Years in India. By Henry Harris Jessup, D.D. 
Two Volumes. Fleming H. Revell Company, 1910. 

Memorial of Dwight Whitney Marsh. By Elizabeth Clark 
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Memorial Volume of the First Fifty Years of the American 
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Memoirs of American Missionaries formerly connected with the 
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Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church 
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The Missionary Herald. Published by the American Board of 
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The Missionary Review of the World. Funk and Wagnalls 
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A Cyclopaedia of Missions, containing a Comprehensive View of 
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The One Hundredth Anniversary of the Haystack Prayer Meet- 
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History of Torrington, Connecticut, from Its Settlement in 1737, 
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A History of the Churches and Ministers, and of Franklin Asso- 
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The Panoplist. Vols. VI-XV. 

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Williamstown and Williams College. By Arthur Latham Perry, 
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Samuel J. Mills, Missionary Pathfinder, Pioneer and Promoter. 
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Life and Letters of David Coit Scudder, Missionary in Southern 
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Life of Professor Albert Hopkins. By Albert C. Sewall. New 
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Heroes and Martyrs of the Modern Missionary Enterprise: A 
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The Story of the American Board : An Account of the First Hun- 
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History of the Town of Palmer. By J. H. Temple, 1889. 

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History of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
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[634] 



INDEX 



Small Capitals indicate the persons of whom Biographical 
Sketches are given. 



Abbott, L., 209. 

Abeih, 164. 

Acre, 342. 

Adabazar, 628. 

Adams, E. A., 431. 

Adams, W. W., 388. 

Adana, 577, 578. 

Africa, 50, 276. 

African School, 50. 

Age, 89. 

Ahmednagar, 211. 

Aidin, 536. 

Ain Zehalta, 339. 

Aintab, 465, 629. 

Aleppo, 265. 

Alexander, James M., 410-414. 

Allchin, George, 579-583. 

Allen, David O., 108-114. 

Allen, Herbert M., 599-605. 

Amahlongwa, 363. 

Amanzimtoti, 288. 

Amauau, 590. 

American Baptist, 137. 

American Bible Societv, 94, 

164. 
American Board, 2, 123. 
American Rendezvous, 203. 
Anapauo, 587. 
Anatolia College, 486. 
Anderson, Secretary, 28, 105, 

333. 
Andrus, Alpheus N., 478-483. 
Ante-Taurus, 479. 
Antonio Kangombe, 546. 
Araucanian Indians, 95. 
Arcot, 238. 
Areopagus, 90. 
Arkansas Cherokees, 176. 
Armenian Mission, 426. 
Armenians, 602. 
Armstrong, S. C, 462. 

[ 635 



Assam, 135. 
Athens, 89. 
Aurupek, 590. 
Avedaper, 603. 

B 

Babajee, 116, 129. 

Bacon, Leonard, 258. 

Bagdad, 481. 

Bailundu, 546. 

Bakali language, 274. 

Baldwin, Dwight, 104-108. 

Ballard, Addison, 253, 256. 

Bangalore, 597. 

Bangkok, 292, 610. 

Baptist Missionary Magazine, 

139. 
Bardezag, 301, 603. 
Bardwell, H., 22. 
Barnum, H. N., 623. 
Barton, J. L., 460. 
Bascom, John, 335. 
Battalagundu, 399. 
Batticotta, 325. 
Batticotta Seminary, 149, 282. 
Beckwith, Edward G., 334- 

337. 
Beirut, 265, 519. 
Beirut College, 523. 
Benguella, 545. 
Benjamin, Nathan, 181-187. 
Benton, William A., 264-269. 
Best, Jacob, 274-277. 
Bhamdun, 267. 
Bihe, 546. 
Bijnaur, 494. 
Bingham, Hiram, 5. 
Bishop, Bernice Pauahi, 354; S. 

E., 174. 
Bitlis, 408. 

Bloom, Lansing B., 624-627. 
Bohemians, 429. 

] 



Index 



Bombay, 47, 111. 

Bombay Missionary Union, 20. 

Boolanuk, 408. 

Boon-Itt, Boon, 610-621; Me- 
morial, 616. 

Boxer Rising, 571. 

Brazil, 606. 

"Brethren, The," 28, 42, 46, 67. 

Brewster, Frederick H., 317- 
319. 

Brigham, John C, 94-96. 

Broosa, 537. 

Brown, A. J., 615. 

Brown, Nathan, 132-141. 

Browning, R., 91. 

Briinn, 428. 

Buenos Ayres, 94. 

Buffalo meat, method of curing, 
189. 

Bulgaria, 421, 422, 593. 

Bulgarian language, 423. 

Burbank, Lysander T., 407- 
410. 

Burgess, E., 51. 

Burma, 135. 

Burnell, Alfred H., 565-568. 

Bush, Stephen, 291, 295. 

Busi River, 557. 

Butler, Samuel R., 414-415. 



Calcutta, 68. 

Calhoun, Charles W., 520- 

524. 
Calhoun, Simeon H., 162-169. 
Canton, 318. 
Cape Palmas, 160. 
Cape Town, 306. 
Carden, Patrick L., 462-464. 
Carter, Franklin, 127. 
Cawnpore, 494. 
Central Turkey, 629. 
Cesarea, 628. 
Ceylon, 60, 436. 
Ceylon Mission, 60. 
Chaldaeans, 257. 
Chandler, J. E., 251. 
Chapin, William W., 433-435. 
Cherokee Indians, 213. 
Chikore, 557. 
Chilemo, 546. 



Chili, 552. 

China, 444, 570, 573. 

Chinese language, method of 

learning, 444. 
Chittur, 238. 

Choctaw Indians, 77, 270, 331. 
Choctaw Mission, 345. 
Chow Fah Mongkut, 293. 
Christian Advocate, 30. 
Christian Union, 209. 
Ciyuka, 549. 

Clark, Walter EL, 381-386. 
Coan, George W., 319-324. 
Collins, C. T., 430. 
Colonization Society, 50. 
Columbia River, 3. 
Columbian College, 70. 
Constantinople, 426, 484, 630. 
Corisco Mission, 382. 
Corwin, Eli, 332-334. 
Count, Elmer E., 591-593. 
Crane, Nathaniel M., 197- 

199. 
Craven, J. T., 495. 
Crawford, Lyndon S., 533- 

540; R., 535. 
Crimean War, 427. 

D 

Darwin, C, 417. 

Dayspring, 229. 

De Riemer, W. E., 328. 

Deir Mimas, 278. 

Diarbekir, 257, 266. 

Dindigul, 198. 

Doorlee Dhapoor, 20. 

Douai, 179. 

Druze chieftain, 268. 

Druze massacre, 167. 

Druzes, 268. 

Dunbar, John, 187-190. 

Durfee, Calvin, 7, 14. 

Dwight, station at, 213. 

E 
East India Company, 14. 
Eastern Turkey Mission, 455, 

602. 
Eddy, William W., 295-300. 
Edwards, H. E., 262. 
Eells, Cushing, 199-210. 



[636] 



Index 



Eliot, station at, 78. 
Ellinwood, F. F., 380. 
Ellis, Egbert S., 621-623. 
Ellora, excavations at, 110. 
Emerson, Oliver P., 497-500. 
Erzroom, 408. 
Eski Zaghra, 421. 
Euphrates College, 600. 
"Evangelical Gymnasium," 89. 
Evangelist, 298. 



"Faithful Villages," 537. 
Farik, 589. 
"Father Mills," 36. 
Field, H. M., 262. 
Fisk, Ezra, 27-31, 43. 
Fitch, Ebenezer, 10. 
Flat Head Indians, 4. 
Florence, 592. 
Foochow, 403. 
Ford, George A., 518-520. 
Ford, Henry A., 253-255. 
Ford, Joshua E., 277-281. 
Fort Walla Walla, 3. 
Fowle, Luther R., 628-630. 
French, Ozro, 210-212. 
Friend, 413. 
Futtehgurh, 437. 



Gaboon, 254; Mission, 253, 274. 

Gamwell, W., 71. 

Gardner, Charles H., 330-332. 

Gates, Lorin S., 508-511. 

Gawar, 321. 

Geog Tapa, 232. 

Georgia Cherokees, 214. 

Gladden, W., 424. 

Gochnag, 602. 

Good Land, 369. 

Goodale, S. B., 345. 

Goodrich, Chauncey, 440-448. 

Gould, Louis A., 528-530. 

Greece, 182. 

Greek Evangelical Alliance, 

536. 
Green, Byram, 6-8, 54. 
Greene, J. K., 423, 604. 
Griffin, E. D., 42, 134, 534. 
Guatemala, 450. 



Gulick, John T., 415-419. 
Gulick, Thomas L., 488-492. 
Gungunyana, 556. 



H 

Lindsey, 



S. B., 627- 



Hadley, 

628. 
Haiku, 413. 
Hainan, 599. 
Halifax, 180. 
Hall, G. A., 21. 
Hall, Gordon, 8-23. 
Hallock, Moses, 57; G., 103. 
Halsey, C. C, 276, 281, 285, 

342. 
Hamadan, 323. 
Hana, 244. 
Harpoot, 600. 

Harris, John K., 345-349. 
Haskell, Henry C, 419-425. 
Hastings, E. P., 329. 
Hawaii, 500. 
Hawaiian Islands, 353. 
Haystack, Williamstown, 7, 40. 
Hazen, A., 434. 
Herrick, David S., 593-598. 
Herrick, James, 246-252. 
Hervey, William, 114-117. 
Hicks, Frederick, 448-453. 
Hill, C. J., 351. 
Hilo, 157, 493. 
Hinduism, 149. 
Hitchcock, Harvey 

147. 
Hoisington, Henry R., 

151. 
Hong Kong, 416. 
Honolulu, 512. 
Hopkins, Albert, 114. 
Hopkins, Mark, 117-127, 
Hoskins, Robert, 493-496. 
House, S. R., 611. 
Hsieh Tai-Chang, 572. 
Huckel, O., 263. 
Hudson's Bay Company, 4, 205. 
Hutchings, Samuel, 151-155. 
Hyde, Charles McE., 349-359. 
Hyderabad, 130. 



K., 141 



147- 



280. 



Ichme, 623. 



[637] 



Index 



Ifafa, 288. 
Inanda, 364. 
India, 493. 
Inghok River, 403. 



Jaffna, 566. 

Jaffna College, 327. 

Jaffnapatam, 61. 

Jaipur, 136. 

Jalna, 110. 

Japan, 575. 

Jeloo Mountains, 321. 

Jemez Pueblo Indians, 625. 

Jemez Springs, 625. 

Jerusalem, 85. 

Jessup, H. H., 279, 298. 

Judson, A., 45. 

K 

Kalgan, 416. 

Kalopathakes, 91. 

Kaluaaha, 143. 

Kamehameha, 99. 

Kamehameha Schools, 354. 

Kamundongo, 547. 

Kaupo, 244. 

Kawaiahao Female Seminary, 

354. 
Kellogg, Samuel H., 435-440. 
Kennedy, H., 617. 
Kijabi, 492. 

Kincaid, William M., 511-517. 
King, Jonas, 83-93. 
Kingsbury, C, 213. 
Kipapula, 244. 
Kladno, 609. 
Kobe, 417. 
Kodikanal, 528. 
Kurdish Chief, 458. 
Kurdistan, 601. 
Kusaie, 586. 
Kyushu, 581. 



La Alianza Evanjelica, 470. 

Labrador, 414. 

Ladies' Greek Committee of 

New York, 88. 
Lahaina, 98, 105. 



Lahainaluna, 105. 

Lake Apollonia, 537. 

Lake Van, 408. 

Landour, 438. 

Laos, 584. 

Lapwai, 202. 

Layard, 259. 

Leavitt, Horace H., 500-503. 

"Lebanon, The," 166. 

Liberia, 51. 

Liholiho, 99. 

Lin Ching Chou, 572. 

Lincoln, President, 125. 

Lintsing, 570. 

Lockwood, Jesse, 175-177. 

Logan, Robert W., 587. 

Loomis, Harvey, 31-35. 

Lyman, David B., 155-159. 

Lyons, Jerre L., 338-345. 

M 

Maa Kim Hock, 614. 

Maa Tuan, 610. 

McAfee, L. M., 384. 

MacLean, G. E., 514. 

Madras, 237, 400. 

Madrid, 490. 

Madura, 596. 

Madura Mission, 400, 526, 566. 

Mahableshwar Hills, 129. 

Mahratta language, 16; Mis- 
sion, 508. 

Makamao, 413. 

Makawao, 491. 

Mana-Madura, 566. 

Mandarin Colloquial language, 
448. 

Manepay, 148. 

Manissa, 537. 

Mar Yohamnan, 223. 

Marash, 577. 

Marcusson, Jacob W., 359-361. 

Mardin, 479, 482 ; location, 479 ; 
Orphanage at, 481; Theolog- 
ical Seminary at, 482. 

Maronites, 341. 

Marquesas Islands, 371. 

Marseilles, 86. 

Marsh, Dwight W., 255-264; 
G. P., 90. 

Marsovan, 484. 



[638] 



Index 



Massachusetts Missionary Soci- 
ety, 2, 43. 

Maui, 105. 

Maynard, W. H., 84. 

Mead, Willis W., 577-579. 

Melur, 566. 

Meniikan, 321. 

Merwin, Alexander M., 468- 
471. 

Mesilla Park, 625. 

Mesopotamia, 479. 

Metawales, 341. 

Mexico City, 531, 542. 

Micronesia, 353. 

Midyat, 481. 

Mills, Cyrus T., 281-287. 

Mills, Samuel J., Jr., 35-56; 
S. J., Sr., 36. 

Mills Theological Society, 28. 

"Missionary Army," 580. 

Missionary Herald, 107, 176, 
185, 189, 194, 296, 431, 555. 

Missionary Review of the 
World, 380. 

Missionary Society at Williams 
College* 42. 

Missionary's Call, 135. 

Mitchell, Arthur, 373-381. 

Mitchell, Samuel S., 471-474. 

Mollendo, 551. 

Molokai, 142. 

Montreal, 414. 

Moravia, 428. 

Morning Star, 586. 

Mortlock Islands, 587. 

Mosul, 259. 

Mount Lebanon, 164. 

Mount Silinda, 557. 

Mussulmans, 87. 

N 

Nachod, 609. 
Nasseek, 20. 

Natal, 316; Harbor, 306. 
Neesima, J., 622. 
Nengenenge, 382. 
Nepean, Sir Evan, 14. 
Nestorian Mission, 223. 
Nestorians, 227, 319. 
New Mexico, 625. 



Nez Perces, 4. 

Nicomedia, 304. 

Ningpo, 272, 529. 

North China Mission, 476. 

North Pacific Missionary Insti- 
tute, 354. 

Northwestern Christian Advo- 
cate, 495. 

O 

Oahu College, 283, 336. 

Obookiah, Henry, 47. 

Occident, 284. 

Ogden, Rollo, 540-543. 

Olandebenk, 274. 

Oleai, 590. 

Oodooville, 152. 

Oregon Indians, 4; River, 4. 

Orient, 603. 

Osaka, 417, 501, 579. 



Panama, 450. 
Panditeripo, 233, 325. 
Pang-Chuang, 569. 
Pao-ting-fu, 569. 
Paris, 178. 

Parker, Samuel, 1-6. 
Parsons, Justin W., 300-805. 
Parvin, T., 94. 
Pasumalai, 193, 248, 399. 
Pasumalai College, 595. 
Paton, J. G., 380. 
Patterson, R. W., 379. 
Patton, C. H., 559. 
Pawnee Indians, 188. 
Peking, 416, 444, 476, 628. 
Periakulam, 393, 597. 
Perkins, Frederick J., 605- 

606. 
Perkins, Henry P., 568-576. 
Perry, Henry T., 464-468. 
Persia, 163, 505. 
Philippopolis, 420. 
Phra Montri, 615. 
Phraner, Samuel K., 583-584. 
Pilsen, 609. 
Pimplus, 434. 
Pitsanuloke, 614. 
Pixley, Stephen C, 361-869. 



[639] 



Index 



Plainfield, Mass., 57. 

Polela District, 556. 

Polhemus, Isaac H., 530-533. 

Ponape, 586. 

Poor, Daniel, 63. 

Porter, Ebenezer, 11. 

Porter, John S., 606-610. 

Portuguese, 60. 

Potter, William S., 369. 

Prague, 428, 607. 

Pratas Shoal, 416. 

Pratt, L., 350, 367. 

Presbyterian Board, 82, 377, 

470. 
Prime, S. I., 93, 165. 
Prince Damrong, 617. 
Prince Su, 571. 
Pulney Hills, 393, 395. 
Punahou School, 411. 

Q 

Qua-Kieng, 294, 610. 



Rankin, W., 186. 

Raynolds, George C, 453-462. 

Rays of Light, 323. 

Read, Hollis, 127-132. 

Rhea, S. A., 232. 

Rice, Luther, 65-74. 

Richards, James, 56-65. 

Richards, T. C, 46. 

Richards, William, 96-104. 

Robbins, Francis L. B., 23-27. 

Robert College, 428. 

Robert W. Logan, 587. 

Robinson, Charles, 169-171. 

Rocky Mountains, 3, 188. 

Romanes, G. T., 417. 

Rome, 592. 

Rood, David, 287-291. 

Royapoorum, 152. 

S 
Sabi River, 557. 
St. Helena, 171. 
Sadiya, 136. 
Sakanjimba, 549. 
Salem Tabernacle Church, 13, 

47. 
Salonica, 301, 360. 

[640 



Saltillo Mission, 625. 

San Paulo, 606. 

Sanders, Marshall D., 324- 

330. 
Sanders, William H., 544-551. 
Sandwich Islands, 499. 
Santander, 490. 
Santiago, 469. 
Sassoon, 458. 

SCHAUFFLER, HENRY A., 425- 

433. 
Schauffler Missionary Training 

School, 432. 
Schermerhorn, J. F., 48. 
Schweifat, 523. 
Scudder, David C, 386-396. 
Scudder, Henry M., 233-244. 
Seir, 227. 
Semiramis, 456. 
Sennacherib, 456. 
Sert, 480. 

Seward, John, 75-76. 
Seymour, Bela N., 369-373. 
Shanghai, 476. 
Shansi, 446, 571. 
Shantung, 569. 
Shaohing, 529. 

Sheldon, David N., 177-181. 
Sholapur, 509. 
Sholavandan, 395. 
Siam, 170, 463, 620. 
Siam and Laos, 293. 
Sibsagar, 137. 
Sidon, 278; Academy, 519. 
Singapore, 584. 
Sirur, 211. 
Sivas, 465, 466. 
Smichor, 609. 
Smith, Lowell, 172-175. 
Smith, Magness, 551-552. 
Smyrna, 164. 

Snelling, Alfred, 585-590. 
"Society of Inquiry," 46, 67,. 

173. 
Sofia, 420. 
Spokane Indians, 204; River,. 

204. 
Spring, G., 38. 
Stocking, William R., 503- 

507, 

] 



Index 



Stoddard, C. A., 383. 
Stoddard, David T., 217-233, 

163. 
Straits Settlements, 584. 
Street, Alfred E., 598-599. 
Strong, John C, 269-271. 
Strong, Joseph D., 337-338. 
Strong, W. E., 21. 
Sumray, 614. 
Swift, Elisha P., 80-83. 
Syria, 296, 519. 
Syria Mission, 339. 
Syrian Protestant College, 521. 
Syrians, 520. 



Tabernacle Church, Salem, 13, 

47. 
Tabriz, 231. 
Tamo, Deacon, 321. 
Tamil language, 390. 
Tarbox, I. N., 24. 
Tarsus, 578. 

Taylor, E., 261; J. B., 73. 
Tellippallai, 60, 325. 
Tenos, 88. 
Terupuvanum, 197. 
Thompson, Frank, 492-493. 
Tientsin, 477, 569. 
Tigris River, 257, 505. 
Tirumangalam, 191. 
Tirupavanam, 525. 
Tokyo, 241. 

Tracy, Charles C, 483-488. 
Tracy, James E., 524-528. 
Tracy, William, 190-196. 
Treat, Alfred O., 474-478. 
Trebizond, 537. 
Tripoli, 339, 522. 
Truk, 586. 
Tshimakain, 204. 
Tung-Chou, 445. 

U 
Umtali, 562. 
Umtwalume, 306. 
Umvoti, 288. 
Urumia, 223, 226, 320, 505, 602. 

V 



Valparaiso, 469. 

Van, 455, 456, 458; College, 

461. 
Vancouver, 5. 
Varany, 151. 
Vellore, 238. 
Vermont Telegraph, 135. 

W 
Wailuku, 411. 
Waimea, 105. 
Waioli, 411. 
Walla Walla, 206. 
Warren, Edward, 61. 
Washburn, George T., 397- 

402. 
Western Turkey, 428. 
Wheeler, C. H., 600. 
Wheelock, 78. 
White, David, 159-162. 
Whitman, Marcus, 4, 202. 
Whitman College, 207. 
Whitney, W. D., 309. 
Whittlesey, Eliphalet, 244- 

246. 
Wight, Joseph K., 271-273. 
Wilder, George A., 552-565, 

311. 
Wilder, Hyman A., 305-317. 
Willamette Valley, 206. 
Willey, Worcester, 213-216. 
Williams, S. W., 476. 
Woodin, Simeon F., 402-407. 
Wright, Alfred, 76-80. 



X 



Xavier, 60. 



Vaigai River, 393. 



Yiicho, 445. 
Yokohama, 139. 
Youth's Day spring, 475. 
Yu Chou, 477. 
Yuan Shih Kai, 571. 

Z 

Zacatecas, 531. 
Zahleh, 341. 
Zaragoza, 490. 
Zizkor, 609. 
Zululand, 554. 
Zulus, 288. 
Zumbro, W. M., 401. 



[641 ] 






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